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All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Current season or competition: 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Logo
Irish	Comórtas Shinsear Peile na hÉireann
Code	Gaelic football
Founded	1887
Region	Ireland (31 teams) />England (1 team) United States (1 team) (GAA)
Trophy	Sam Maguire Cup
No. of teams	33
Title holders	Dublin (28th title)
Most titles	Kerry (37 titles)
Sponsors	Supervalu eir Allied Irish Banks
TV partner(s)	RTÉ, Sky Sports, BBC Northern Ireland, Eir Sports, Premier Sports, (TG4) [1]
Official website	http://www.gaa.ie

The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) (Irish: Craobhchomórtas Sinsear na hÉireann sa Pheil), the premier competition in gaelic football, is an annual series of games played in Ireland and organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).^[2] The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final is played by the "35th Sunday of the year" at Croke Park in Dublin, with the winning team receiving the Sam Maguire Cup.

Contested by the top inter-county football teams in Ireland, the tournament has taken place every year since 1887, except in 1888, when the competition was not played due to a tour of the United States by would-be competitors.^{[citation needed]}

History

The first Championship to be held featured club teams who represented their respective counties after their county championship. The 21 a-side final was between Commercials of Limerick and Young Irelands of Louth. The final was played in Beech Hill, Clonskeagh (not Bird Avenue) on 29 April 1888 with Commercials winning by 1–4 to 0–3. Unlike later All-Ireland competitions, there were no provincial championships, and the result was an open draw.

The second Championship was unfinished owing to the American Invasion Tour. The 1888 provincial championships had been completed (Tipperary, Kilkenny and Monaghan winning them; no Connacht teams entered) but after the Invasion tour returned, the All-Ireland semi-final and final were not played. English team London reached the final four times in the early years of the competition (1900–1903).

In 1892, inter-county teams were introduced to the All-Ireland Championship. Congress granted permission for the winning club to use players from other clubs in the county, thus the inter-county teams came into being. The rules of hurling and football were also altered: goals were made equal to five points, and teams were reduced from 21 to 17 a-side.

The 1903 Championship brought Kerry's first All-Ireland title. They went on to become the most successful football team in the history of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.^[3]

The first half of the twentieth century brought the rise of several teams who won two or more All-Ireland titles in that period, such as Kildare, Mayo, Cavan, Wexford and Roscommon. In the 1990s, a significant sea change took place, as the All-Ireland was claimed by an Ulster team in four consecutive years (1991–1994). Since then Ulster has produced more All-Ireland winning teams than any other province.^[4]

The All-Ireland Qualifiers were introduced in 2001. Later that year, the 2001 final brought victory for Galway who became the first football team to win an All-Ireland by springing through "the back door." In 2013, Hawk-Eye was introduced for Championship matches at Croke Park.^[5] It was first used to confirm that Offaly substitute Peter Cunningham's attempted point had gone wide 10 minutes into the second half of a game against Kildare.^[6] 2013 also brought the first Friday night game in the history of the Championship - a first round qualifier between Carlow and Laois.^[7]

2018 saw the introduction of the All Ireland Super 8s.

Teams

Team	Colours	Most recent success
		All-Ireland	Provincial
Antrim	Saffron and white		1951
Armagh	Orange and white	2002	2008
Carlow	Red, green and gold		1944
Cavan	Royal blue and white	1952	1997
Clare	Saffron and Blue		1992
Cork	Red and white	2010	2012
Derry	Red and white	1993	1998
Donegal	Gold and green	2012	2018
Down	Red and black	1994	1994
Dublin	Sky blue and navy	2018	2018
Fermanagh	Green and white
Galway	Maroon and white	2001	2018
Kerry	Green and gold	2014	2018
Kildare	White	1928	2000
Laois	Blue and white		2003
Leitrim	Green and gold		1994
London	Green and white
Limerick	Green and white	1896	1896
Longford	Royal blue and gold		1968
Louth	Red and white	1957	1957
Mayo	Green and red	1951	2015
Meath	Green and gold	1999	2010
Monaghan	White and blue		2015
New York	Red, white and blue
Offaly	White, green and gold	1982	1997
Roscommon	Primrose and blue	1944	2017
Sligo	Black and white		2007
Tipperary	Blue and gold	1920	1935
Tyrone	White and Red	2008	2017
Waterford	White and blue		1898
Westmeath	Maroon and white		2004
Wexford	Purple and gold	1918	1945
Wicklow	Blue and gold

Format

Current format

The county is a geographical region in Ireland, and each of the thirty-two counties in Ireland organise their own gaelic games affairs through a County Board. The county teams play in their respective Provincial Championships (reflective of the four Irish provinces) in Connacht (which also includes teams from London and New York), Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. Kilkenny is currently unique among the 32 Irish county associations in not participating in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. The Provincial Championships operate through a knock-out cup competition format. They take place during the months of May and June. The winners of each of the four Provincial Championships earn a place in the All-Ireland Super 8s, a round robin group stage new to the 2018 Championship, which takes place in the months of July and August.

Each provincial championship match is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn extra time is played. However, if both sides are still level at the end of extra time a replay takes place. In the case of a provincial final if matches end level a replay takes place without extra time.

The twenty-nine teams that fail to win their respective Provincial Championships receive a second opportunity to reach the All-Ireland Series via the All Ireland Qualifiers (also known as the 'back door'). The qualifiers series takes place in the months of June and July and operates as follows:

Fans of Sligo (in black) are visible in the crowd among supporters of Cork, Meath and Tyrone. The introduction of the All-Ireland Qualifiers in 2001 has provided weaker counties with opportunities to play big games at Croke Park.

• 
  Qualifiers
  
  
  
  • 
    Round 1: All teams that fail to reach the semi-finals of their respective Provincial Championships (16 in total) compete in round one. An open draw system is used to divide the teams into eight individual match-ups. The winning eight teams progress to Round 2, while the losing eight teams are eliminated from the All Ireland Championship.
  
  
  • 
    Round 2: Each of the eight winning teams of Round 1 are drawn against the eight losing teams from the semi-finals of the four Provincial Championships. The winning eight teams progress to Round 3, while the losing eight teams are eliminated from the All Ireland Championship.
  
  
  • 
    Round 3: The eight winning teams from Round 2 are divided into four individual match-ups. An open draw is made to determine the four pairings. The winning four teams progress to Round 4, while the losing four teams are eliminated from the All Ireland Championship.
  
  
  • 
    Round 4: Each of the four winning teams of Round 3 are drawn against the four losing teams from the finals of the four Provincial Championships. The winning four teams proceed to the All-Ireland Series, joining the four Provincial Champions, while the losing four teams are eliminated from the All Ireland Championship.
  
  
  
  


• 
  The All-Ireland Championship
  
  
  
  • 
    All-Ireland Super 8s: The four Provincial Champions and the winning four teams from Round 4 of the All-Ireland Qualifiers take part in a group stage that takes place in the months of July and August. The group stage is organised on a league basis with two groups of four teams, with each team playing the other three teams once. Each group consists of two Provincial Champions and two Round 4 Qualifier Winners. Each team plays one game in Croke Park, one home game and one away game. (In the case of Dublin, Croke Park is treated as the home stadium so they would play two games in Croke Park). The top two teams in both groups qualify for the All Ireland Semi Finals.
  
  
  • 
    All-Ireland Semi Finals: The winner of group one plays the runner-up of group two and the winner of group two plays the runner-up of group one in two All-Ireland Semi Finals played over the course of one weekend.
  
  
  • 
    All-Ireland Final: The two remaining teams meet in the All-Ireland Final, to take place in August. The winning team is crowned All-Ireland Champions and presented with the Sam Maguire Cup.
  
  
  
  

Significant changes to the format of the Championship were made at GAA's Annual Congress in February 2017. The most significant change is the creation of The All-Ireland Quarter-Final Group Stage (known as the Super 8s), which replaced the previous Quarter-Final stage of the Championship. Additionally the All-Ireland Final was moved to August and replays will only be held for drawn provincial finals and drawn All-Ireland Finals, with extra time to be played in all other Championship matches. The changes will be trialled for three years before being reviewed by the GAA in late 2020.^[8]

Quarter-finals format (2001–17)

From 2001-17, the Championship was played using the Quarter-finals format. Under this format Provincial matches would take place during the months of May, June and July. The winners of each of the four Provincial Championships would earn a place in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals, which would take place in the month of August. Replays would be played for all drawn matches, not just drawn Provincial Finals and drawn All-Ireland Finals. Extra-time would only be used for Replays and Qualifier Matches. If the teams were still level after extra time, the qualifier match would go to a replay or in the case of replays, another replay would take place.

The qualifiers series would take place in the months of June and July with the winning four teams of Round 4 playing the four Provincial Champions in the All-Ireland Quarter Finals.

• 
  
  • 
    All-Ireland Quarter Finals: The four Provincial Champions would be drawn against the winning four teams from Round 4 of the All-Ireland Qualifiers. If a match finished with both teams level, a replay would take place. The four winning teams qualify for the All-Ireland Semi-Finals.
  
  
  • 
    All-Ireland Semi Finals: The All-Ireland Semi Finals would take place in August and be contested by the four winners of the All-Ireland Quarter Finals. If a match ended with both teams level, a replay would take place. The two winning teams qualify for the All-Ireland Final.
  
  
  • 
    All-Ireland Final: The two remaining teams would meet in the All-Ireland Final, usually on the third Sunday in September. The winning team is crowned All-Ireland Champions.^[9]
    
  
  

Historic format (1888–2000)

For the first All-Ireland championship in 1887, the competition was played on an open draw knockout basis. From 1888, the provincial system was introduced, whereby the counties in each of Ireland's four provinces would play each other on a knockout basis to find provincial champions. These four champions would meet in the All-Ireland semi-finals. The structure outlined above was adopted in 2001 to allow more games to be played, but still retain provincial championships and the knockout structure, resulting in every game continuing to be a meaningful fixture, with no dead-rubber league format matches being played out.

All-Ireland finals

Croke Park kitted out in the green and red of Mayo fans at the 2004 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.

Typically, over the four Sundays of September, All-Ireland Finals in men's football, ladies' football, hurling and camogie take place at Croke Park, the national stadium of the GAA. Two grades are played on each final day, the senior team and the minor team (consisting of younger players, under the age of 18, who have participated in that year's All-Ireland Minor Football Championship). Guests who attend these events include the President of Ireland, the Taoiseach and other important dignitaries. The football final is considered the pinnacle event of this period.

The final game of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship takes place on the third Sunday of September. The men's decider regularly attracts crowds of over 80,000. The winning team captain receives the Sam Maguire Cup. The current champions are Dublin.

Venues

Dublin	Thurles	Limerick	Killarney
Croke Park	Semple Stadium	Gaelic Grounds	Fitzgerald Stadium
53°21′38.70″N 6°15′4.80″W / 53.3607500°N 6.2513333°W / 53.3607500; -6.2513333	52°40′55.91″N 7°49′30.40″W / 52.6821972°N 7.8251111°W / 52.6821972; -7.8251111	52°40′12.50″N 8°39′15.10″W / 52.6701389°N 8.6541944°W / 52.6701389; -8.6541944	52°3′58.75″N 9°30′28.56″W / 52.0663194°N 9.5079333°W / 52.0663194; -9.5079333
Capacity: 82,300	Capacity: 53,500	Capacity: 49,866	Capacity: 43,180
			]]
Castlebar	Croke Park Semple Stadium Gaelic Grounds Páirc Uí Chaoimh Fitzgerald Stadium MacHale Park St Tiernach's Park Pearse Stadium Casement Park Breffni Park Location of the top 10 GAA stadiums by capacity in Ireland.		Clones
MacHale Park			St Tiernach's Park
53°51′13.92″N 9°17′3.93″W / 53.8538667°N 9.2844250°W / 53.8538667; -9.2844250			54°11′8.04″N 7°13′57.86″W / 54.1855667°N 7.2327389°W / 54.1855667; -7.2327389
Capacity: 42,000			Capacity: 36,000
Galway	Cork	Belfast	Cavan
53°15′47.92″N 9°5′2.98″W / 53.2633111°N 9.0841611°W / 53.2633111; -9.0841611	51°53′59.10″N 8°26′6.15″W / 51.8997500°N 8.4350417°W / 51.8997500; -8.4350417	54°34′23.90″N 5°59′2.35″W / 54.5733056°N 5.9839861°W / 54.5733056; -5.9839861	53°58′54.54″N 7°21′33.38″W / 53.9818167°N 7.3592722°W / 53.9818167; -7.3592722
Pearse Stadium	Páirc Uí Chaoimh	Casement Park	Breffni Park
Capacity: 26,197	Capacity: 45,000	Capacity: 32,500	Capacity: 32,000

Records and statistics

Although Wexford were the first county to win four consecutive All-Ireland Senior Football Finals (1915–18), historically Kerry have been the most successful football team in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. As of 2015, Kerry have won the competition on 37 occasions, winning in four consecutive years twice (1929–1932 and 1978–1981) and for three consecutive years twice as well (1939–1941 and 1984–1986). Dublin have joined the four in a row club winning the competition consecutively since 2014. No team has yet conquered the five in a row. Galway were the first team from the western province of Connacht to win an All-Ireland title, doing so in 1925. The 1933 final brought victory for Cavan, who became the first team from the northern province of Ulster to win an All-Ireland title.

Two teams have won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship as part of a double with that year's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, namely Cork (1890 and 1990) and Tipperary (1895 and 1900). The championship has never been won by a team from outside Ireland, though London have played in five finals.

Dublin are the reigning champions, having defeated Tyrone in the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.

See also

• All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship


• All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship


• Leinster Senior Football Championship


• Ulster Senior Football Championship


• Connacht Senior Football Championship


• Munster Senior Football Championship


• List of Gaelic games competitions

References

External links

• 
  All-Ireland Senior Football Championship at the Gaelic Athletic Association