A RADICAL new Donegal Senior Football Championship has been unveiled by the Donegal County Board for 2020.
The Club Championships will begin in August.
All 16 senior teams will be in a single league to begin with. The top eight teams will qualify for the quarter-finals with the bottom four entering the relegation play-offs.
In a novel format, each team will play only four games – two at home and two away – in the group phase of the Championship.
A draw in early July will determine the first two rounds of games.
The draw for match days three and four will be played after the second and third games respectively.
The top four teams will have home advantage in the quarter-finals, it has been confirmed.
In the Intermediate Championship, all 12 teams will be in the one group with the top eight going to the quarter-finals.
The Junior Championship will see two groups of five teams.
The club season will get underway on Saturday, July 17, with a new regional league.
There will be six regional leagues, the first two rounds of which will be played before the start of the championships.
There will be seven rounds of games with county players available for the first two rounds ahead of the championships.
There are will also be changes to the Junior and Senior Hurling championship and these will be confirmed over the next few days – the start date of the Nicky Rackard, announced yesterday, is earlier than the Donegal CCC had anticipated which has necessitated some re-calibration, namely a condensing of the fixtures window.
Details for the Junior B and Senior C finals are also still to be finalised.
The Reserve championships will have the same ‘league’ fixtures as their Senior and Intermediate counterparts but not run on the same dates.
Rather, Reserve league fixtures will being in mid-August and end in mid-September with the knock-out phases in October and November.
The u21 A and B championships will run as normal but beginning and ending slightly later than envisaged at the beginning of the year.
