Tír call for condensed Ulster competition

DONEGAL have called for the Ulster Championship to be condensed to free up space for club fixtures. The Tír Chonaill men have reached the last five Ulster finals in a row — winning three — but the protracted nature of the competition led to them to making a submission to Croke Park calling for a tightening of provincial schedules. This year it took Ulster nine weeks to play off an eight-game competition, which Donegal secretary Aideen Gillen claims could have been played off much quicker had the schedule been tighter. ‘Part of our submission (to Championship structure reform) was that the Provincial Championship structures must be condensed thus ensuring that clubs are afforded more time to play club games. ‘For instance, there should be no reason that two games could not be played in one weekend with staggered times,’ claimed Gillen in her annual report. Donegal are strongly opposed to a proposal to abolish the Under-21 Football Championship at inter-county level, with Gillen suggesting that the focus should fall on rescheduling third-level competitions. ‘I believe there is strong evidence to move a lot of the colleges competitions, such as the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon, competitions to pre-Christmas,’ she argued. Meanwhile, Gillen also suggested that a Tyrone website report — it was subsequently backed up by an official board statement from Tyrone — which claimed that two of their minor footballers had been ‘exonerated’ of the charge of taunting Donegal minor captain Michael Carroll was ‘inaccurate’. The incident, which occurred in this summer’s Ulster minor football quarter-final clash, prompted an Ulster Council investigation, the findings of which were supposed to be confidential. ‘The incident was investigated by Ulster Council CCC and both counties accepted the findings with agreement that they should remain confidential. ‘Unfortunately an inaccurate version was issued by a Tyrone-based website which necessitated clarification from Ulster Council. ‘We in Donegal are happy with this clarification that the matter is now resolved and is now behind us,’ added the Donegal secretary.