The All-Ireland minor football and hurling championships are set to see some structural changes following today’s GAA Special Congress at Croke Park.

Starting next year, tiered knock-out competitions will be introduced as part of the All-Ireland minor football championship, with Tier 1 seeing the provincial champions playing the provincial runners up in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Those pairings will be set on a provincial rota system initially determined by Central Council and provincial finals cannot be repeated at the quarter-final stage.

Today’s vote also confirmed that additional tiered competition can be organised for counties that do not reach the provincial final stage, so as to add more games to their respective campaigns. Those tiered competitions will be approved by Central Council based on proposals from the Development Competitions Control Committee.

As for the All-Ireland minor hurling championship, next season will see Munster and Leinster champions progressing straight into the semi-finals of the competition.

The preliminary quarter-finals will be played between the third and fourth placed teams in Munster and Leinster, with the two from each province playing each other, while the winners of those games advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals against the beaten Munster and Leinster finalists. That draw will be subject to the avoidance of repeat pairings where possible.

Special Congress today voted to make some structural changes to the All-Ireland minor football and hurling championships, including tiered knock-out competitions in the All-Ireland series. #GAABelong

— The GAA (@officialgaa) September 30, 2023

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