GAA Director General Páraic Duffy has launched a staunch defence of the radical proposals aimed at restructuring the All-Ireland football championship.

Under the proposals which were announced in August, the All-Ireland football quarter-finals would be binned and replaced by two groups of four.

They would be played off on a 'round-robin' basis to produce four semi-finalists.

The Irish Independent reports that Duffy has insisted that, contrary to popular opinion, finance is not a motivating factor behind the plan.

"If this proposal had been made for financial reasons, it would not seek to reduce the number of replays, nor propose that we play eight of the 12 group games outside Croke Park," the Monaghan man writes in a revised document circulated to County Boards this week.

"It's also important to stress that a significant proportion of any additional revenue arising from the group matches will be ring-fenced for the development of games in less successful counties."

He added: "Critical commentary of the championship structure seems oddly preoccupied with achieving an ideal that ignores the unalterable reality of differences in population size, number of clubs, financial resources etc.

"So in the interests of the real (rather than the ideal), let us accept that it is thoroughly unrealistic to believe that every county has an equal chance of winning the Sam Maguire Cup."

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