THE GAA HAVE confirmed this afternoon that the fixture between Dublin and Donegal in the All-Ireland Super 8s series will go ahead at Croke Park on Saturday, 14 July.
Earlier this week, the Donegal County Board outlined their intention to request a meeting with GAA officials “to seek clarification on how any county may use a ground as both a neutral and a home venue”.
The Ulster champions expressed their desire to “ensure that no team has any advantage over any other team” as the football championship approaches its climax.
Under the new Super 8s format which was approved by Congress in 2017, each team are due to play their opening game at Croke Park, with one home game and one away game to follow.
Dublin will subsequently play two games in the Super 8s at Croke Park, as their clash with the winners of the qualifier between Roscommon and Armagh is also expected to be held at GAA headquarters on the first weekend in August.
After a meeting took place today between senior GAA officials and members of the Donegal County Board, the GAA pointed out that no rule currently exists to prevent Dublin from nominating Croke Park as their home venue.
However, they did leave the door open for this to be reviewed by Central Council ahead of next year’s championship.
A statement released by the GAA this afternoon reads:
The GAA has confirmed that a meeting between senior officials and members of the Donegal County Committee took place in Croke Park earlier today. It was accepted as part of these discussions, that the rules in relation to the new All Ireland SFC quarter-final round-robin system had been democratically adopted at Congress 2017 and that these provided for all Round 1 games to be played at Croke Park and each county to subsequently have one home and one away game. While Donegal challenged how any team could nominate Croke Park as their home venue, it was acknowledged that there was nothing in rule to prohibit this. Donegal also requested in light of the issues they highlighted, that a review of the first year of the new championship structures be held by Central Council later in the year and that all counties be invited to submit their observations in this context. It was agreed that the issues highlighted by Donegal would be considered as part of this process and that if Central Council collectively felt that non-structural changes to aspects of the championship were required, that these could be put to Annual Congress in 2019 for consideration.
