Published: Wednesday, 24th March, 2010 5:00pm

Downsizing by local GAA

Barney Allen, chairman of Meath Co Committee.

Delegates at Monday night's poorly attended Meath GAA Co Committee meeting opted to reduce the number of qualification places for the 2010 SFC from nine to eight.

The play-off process this year will have three qualifiers from each of the six-team groups and two from the five-team group. That will produce eight teams for four quarter-finals which will be subject to extra-time.

The SFC relegation issue will be resolved with a round-robin series of games between the bottom team in each group.

It is anticipated that the fixture schedule will be pre-determined. It was not clarified what process would be used to separate teams tied on points at the bottom of a group.

In the IFC, delegates were unhappy that the number of qualification places were reduced from nine to six. There will be two quarter-finals with two of the three group winners qualifying for the semi-finals. The relegation issue will be played on the same basis as the SFC.

The JFC will consist of 24 teams in four groups of six with four quarter-finals. The relegation issue will consist of two semi-finals and final between the bottom team in each group.

The draws for the football and hurling championships will take place next Monday night, 8.0 at Teach na Teamhrach.