An Taoiseach Launches New Football Championship Structure

Ladies Football Mirror Champions League Format

An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, launched the 2007 TG4 All-Ireland
Ladies Football Championships at an evening ceremony in Croke
Park today.

The top 16 teams in the country will enter the TG4 Senior All
Ireland Ladies Football Championship and are drawn into four “Champions
League” style pools with four teams in each pool. The winners
of the four provincial championships – Cork, Laois, Mayo and Armagh
– enter the draw ranked as the top seeds and will all be drawn
into separate pools. The provincial runners-up enter the draw
as second seeds and cannot be drawn in the same pool as their
respective provincial winner or cannot face another provincial
runner-up in the pool stages. In the pool stages, each team will
play each other once and the top two teams from each pool will
advance to an open draw for the quarter-finals of the Championship.
Ladies Football now boasts 110,000 members in over 1000 clubs
in Ireland and overseas, where the game is expanding rapidly in
places such as Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as traditional
strongholds like the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Speaking
at the launch, An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, said, “It is a pleasure
to be with you again for what promises to be the best Ladies Gaelic
Football Championship ever. And we have every reason to be optimistic
given the successes so far. I would like to congratulate the Ladies
Gaelic Football Association and TG4 on all they have achieved
for ladies games in this country. But today, above all, it is
the players, their coaches and mentors we think of most. They
have put in the long hours of training over the months. Now is
their chance to shine and bring glory to their teams and to their
counties. I hope their efforts will be richly rewarded in the
months ahead and I look forward to a great championship.”

TG4 broadcast the Senior Championship draw live from Croke Park
and have announced that they will broadcast two games live each
weekend over the first seven weeks of the Championship as well
as the Championship final in Croke Park on September 23rd. This
is a major boost to the profile of Ladies Football. At the launch
of the Championship’s, Pól Ó Gallchóir, TG4 Ceannasaí said, “We
are delighted to be again partnering ladies football, in what
is our seventh year as sponsors of the Championship. We are really
looking forward to what will be an intriguing summer of live action
and wish all the teams involved the every success. ” TG4 broadcast
13 live Ladies Football matches in 2006 covering the All-Ireland
Championships, the National League, the Club Championships and
the International Rules Series. This summer TG4 will broadcast
16 Championship games live. Last year the average match viewing
share was over 9%, three times TG4’s average weekly share. For
the last few years, the live coverage of the TG4 Senior Ladies
Final has been one of TG4’s top programmes of the year, and the
2006 senior final between Armagh and Cork proved no exception
with an average of 175,000 viewers, TG4’s 4th most popular programme
last year. A new three tier format has been introduced by the
Association this season to the TG4 All Ireland Ladies Football
Championships.

The Championship will now be contested across three levels: Senior,
Intermediate and Junior. Geraldine Giles, Uachtarán Peil Gael
na mBan, said, “This is an exciting time for ladies football.
The new format will bring added drama and competitiveness to the
Championship and the increased number of televised games on TG4
adds greatly to the profile of the game.” Reigning All Ireland
champions Cork will face stiff opposition this year from newly
crowned national league champions Mayo. Laois, Armagh and Galway
are also serious contenders in this year’s Senior All Ireland
Championship and will pose a threat to the Rebelettes as they
seek their third Senior title in a row. The Senior and Intermediate
finals will take place in Croke Park on 23rd September. The Junior
final will take place at a neutral venue yet to be confirmed.

Additional Information Patricia Monahan – National Games Administrator
Tel 01 8363156 Email: patricia@ladiesgaelic.ie Michael O’Keeffe
/ David O’Siochain – Pembroke Communications Tel 01 6496488 /
649 6322 www.ladiesgaelic.ie / www.tg4.ie