All-ireland_senior_football_championship

For current sports news on this topic, see All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 2008

The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Bank of Ireland Football Championship) is the premier "knockout" competition in the game of Gaelic football played in Ireland. The series of games are organized by the Gaelic Athletic Association and are played during the summer months with the All-Ireland Football Final being played on the third or fourth Sunday in September in Croke Park, Dublin. The prize for the winning team is the Sam Maguire Cup.

Every county in Ireland participates in the Championship (except Kilkenny) so the competition is much more open than the Hurling Championship. The most dominant teams have always come from the provinces of Leinster and Munster. Kerry and Dublin are the most successful football teams. In recent years the Ulster football teams gave the impression that they might dominate the Championship with Armagh and Tyrone winning All-Ireland titles in recent years, though Down and Cavan are the most successful Ulster teams having won the All-Ireland 5 times each. Kerry are the current All-Ireland Senior Football Champions winning their 35th title following a comprehensive win over Cork. This is by far the most titles won by any county, confirming Kerry\'s longstanding dominance of the game.

Format

Current format

The county is a geographical region in Ireland, and each of the thirty-two counties in Ireland organises its own GAA affairs through a County Board. The county teams play in their respective Provincial Championships in Munster, Leinster, Connacht (including London and New York), and Ulster. If successful the county team will go on to play in the All-Ireland series. The football championship qualifying structure (for teams that have been knocked out of their respective provincial championships - The winning team of the respective provincial championship do not take part of the Qualifiers or "Back Door") that was used from 2001 to 2006 worked as follows:

• Round 1 : This Round shall include all the counties that do not qualify for the Provincial -Finals from division 3 or above of the NFL. An Open Draw shall be made to give eight pairings. The division 4 losers enter the Tommy Murphy Cup
• Round 2 : Each of the eight winning teams of round 1 shall play against each other. A draw shall be made to determine the four pairings.
• Round 3 : Each of the four teams defeated in the Provincial Finals shall play against the four winners from Round 3. A draw shall be made to determine the four pairings.
• All Ireland Quarter-Finals : Each of the four Provincial Champions shall play one of the four winners from Round 3. A draw shall be made to determine the four pairings.[1]

Historic format

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 (altered for 2007 onwards) was adopted in 2001 to allow more games to be played but still retain provincial championships and the knockout structure.

Past winners

The following table sets out the winning team and beaten finalist of each All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final. The vast majority of finals were contested by the winning semi-finalists, although in certain cases in the early years a provincial championship had not been completed in time and the affected province nominated a team to participate in the All-Ireland semi-final. In some of these cases, the nominated team (e.g. Dublin in 1905) won its semi-final, but was then vanquished in their provincial championship, and their place in the All-Ireland final taken by another team from that province.

Notes

Note 1: Kerry refused to travel owing to a dispute with the Great Southern & Western Railway Company.

Note 2: Some confusion surrounds 1925. One sources contents that after an objection and counter-objection, Cavan and Kerry were both disqualified after their semi-final (which Kerry won by a point - 1-7 to 2-3). The Connacht championship had yet to be completed. Another suggests that Cavan on that appeal and then lost to Galway in the final [2].

Top Winners

(Accurate to September 2007)

The top county teams by number of wins (and when they last won and lost a final):

The top provinces by number of wins:

The following counties have never won an All Ireland:

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