Offaly Senior Football Championship set to go to 10 teams in 2025

THE Offaly Senior Football Championship is almost certain to go to ten teams in 2025, with a six team Senior “B” and eight club Intermediate Football Championship.

Competitions Control Committee secretary Pat Teehan told a County Board meeting on Monday night that they will be putting forward these recommendations when the 2025 structures are finalised following grading of teams in January.

The Competitions Control Committee had been asked to carry out a review of the structures and come up with proposals for next season. They got several proposals from clubs and examined them all before deciding to bring football into line with hurling – where senior has consisted of ten clubs, senior “B” six and intermediate eight for a few seasons.

It will be a big surprise if their proposals are not passed and there is an appetite for increasing the number of senior football teams. They will be drawn in two groups of five with the top team going into the semi-finals and the next two into two quarter-finals.

The six senior “B” teams will be in the one group with the top four playing in two semi-finals while there will be two groups of four in intermediate – the top team in each group qualifies for the semi-finals while second and third play in quarter-finals. There will be relegation from all championships.

If the proposals are passed, it means that relegation will not apply this year – though relegation play offs are proceeding this weekend and will be concluded in two weeks time - and the two senior “B” finalists will be promoted. 10 teams will be dependant on the beaten senior “B” finalist agreeing to go up as they couldn't be forced if they wished to stay back and try and win their own grade.

There was consternation among supporters this year when proposals were passed that every team qualify from the group for quarter-finals in the main football championships. While the group stages did not prove as bad as feared, the lack of a knockout element in them annoyed many and that format was never going to be retained.

All clubs had one home and one away game in the football championships this year and it will be proposed to extend this to hurling as well as football in 2025 – in the case of a five team group, this will see the first game at a neutral venue, the next two home and away and the final one neutral.

They will make more detailed proposals for all Junior Football and Hurling Championships later. Mr Teehan said the volume of walkovers in these was a cause of concern and they want to examine means of starting and finishing the “B” and “C” championships earlier in the season. They will also propose a new competition for junior only clubs in football, to take place before the championships start.

He also spoke about problems with getting the U-20 Football and Hurling Championships played. He was unable to give delegates start dates for this year's competitions and said they wanted to examine a blitz type format next year where they would be completed in a couple of weeks.

The committee were also given the go ahead to examine the leagues with Pat Teehan revealing that there was a consensus that promotion and relegation would apply.