Kildare clubs consider Championship revamp

Club delegates at the March meeting of Kildare Co Board will be given the option of retaining the current Football Championship structure or to introduce a new format over the next three years.

At the February meeting of the Co Board on Tuesday night, Noel McKenna, the new Chairman of the Competitions Control Committee (CCC) advised delegates that two proposals would be put to delegates in March:

Retain the existing structure of 16 Senior, 16 Intermediate and 12 Junior Or Introduce a new structure of 12 Senior, 16 Intermediate, 8 Junior and 8 Junior A.

The CCC Chairman briefed delegates on a Survey carried out on the Football Championship among clubs and the general public. Only half of the clubs responded to the survey while there were 1,000 responses from the general public. 950 of the general public were club members, 700 of which were from senior clubs.

56% of the clubs who responded expressed overall satisfaction with the Championships, 33% were neutral and 11% expressed dissatisfaction. Only 39% of the general public expressed satisfaction with 36% dissatisfied and 26% neutral. On the duration of the current Championships 36% of the clubs responded that they were too long, 58% just right while 6% felt they were too short. 43% of the general public felt that the Championships were too long, 50% just right and 7% too short. On the question of the number of clubs in the Senior Championship 67% of the clubs responded that there should be less than 16 teams while 61% of the public had a similar response. There was a 77% and 56% response, respectively, between the clubs and the general public for 16 teams in the Intermediate Championship. In the Junior Championship 67% of the clubs were in favour of 8 teams with 61% of the general public expressing a similar sentiment.

If the new format is passed in March, it would be introduced as follows:

2025/2026: 16 Senior, 16 Intermediate, 12 Junior 2027: 14 Senior, 16 Intermediate, 8 Junior, 6 Junior A 2028: 12 Senior, 16 Intermediate, 8 Junior, 8 Junior A

The process would see no change to the promotion/relegation format for 2025. In 2026 three teams would be relegated from Senior to Intermediate with the Intermediate Champions promoted. Three teams would be relegated from Intermediate to Junior with the Junior Champions promoted. Six teams would be relegated from Junior to Junior A.

The same promotion/relegation format for the Senior and Intermediate Championships would prevail in 2027 but three teams would be relegated from Junior to Junior A with the Junior A Champions promoted to Junior.

The new format would be fully introduced in 2028 with the usual 1 promotion/1 relegation for each grade.

Co Board Chairman, Mick Mullen and CCC Chairman, Noel McKenna stressed that the decision on the Football Championships format would be for the clubs alone with no direction coming from the Executive. A meeting with Club Chairmen will take place later in the month.

A similar survey was conducted in relation to the Hurling Championships and will be made public shortly.

All the new rules recently introduced at intercounty level will be introduced for the club competitions in Kildare in 2025 with the exception of the Countdown Clock/Hooter.

Adult Preseason Competitions will commence on weekending 16 February with the Adult Football Leagues commencing on weekending 23 March and the Adult Hurling Leagues on weekending 13 April.