Change is coming to club football in Mayo

The Mayo Senior Football League will be restructured in time for the 2026 season.

The decision comes after Mayo GAA’s Competitions Controls Committee (CCC) considered a motion submitted by Kiltimagh GAA Club to December’s County Convention and agreed to transition from the current system.

Presently, there are ‘A’ and ‘B’ sections in each division, with the top team in each playing a league final.

Kiltimagh’s proposal was to revert to a traditional Division 1, 2 and 3 format made up of 12 teams in each, with the make-up of additional divisions dependent on the number of other teams.

The CCC have agreed in part to the proposal, with county secretary Ronan Kirrane saying where they differ is that the new system will only work on a 10 team per division basis, because of the condensed fixtures calendar. Also, while it was Kiltimagh’s assertion there should be no league finals, and that the top team in each division is simply declared champion, Kirrane said it was the CCC’s firm belief that playing finals was extremely important.

“That would be based on a number of factors,” he explained to delegates at last Wednesday’s monthly board meeting. “The feedback from players themselves is that they want to win a league final. Secondly, we have sponsors for each of our competitions and it’s important that we recognise them. There’s also gates and tv rights, stuff like that, so it is important that we have finals,” he said.

It’s likely, added Ronan Kirrane, that the make-up of Division 1 in 2026 would consist of the top fives teams in this coming season’s 1A and 1B, saying that the board had no problem with the opinion of clubs who feel it best to change to a straight Division 1 to 7 system (or however many divisions would be required).

“No club will be kicked in [this year’s] league without clubs knowing what the league structure will be in 2026,” Kirrane assured.

Meanwhile, Michael Diskin, the recently elected vice-chairperson of Mayo County Board, has said the possibility of splitting rounds of the club football championships across consecutive weekends is being actively explored. There has been growing discontent among spectators about the condensed schedule of the county football championships, which consistently has in excess of 20 senior, intermediate and junior matches on any given weekend.

Spreading each round across two weekends would provide better opportunities to spectators to attend more games, acknowledged Michael Diskin who added that the CCC was also seriously considering fixing some championship matches on Friday evenings.