Presidential hopefuls and protests at GAA Congress

Croke Park is the venue this weekend as GAA delegates gather for the 2026 Congress with some key issues to be decided including the election of a new president.

Last year, proposals to change the format of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship dominated much of the discourse.

This year, there is just as much debate about what is not on the agenda, with protests planned on Saturday over Allianz's sponsorship of GAA competitions, while format changes and the length of the inter-county season will be decided.

Before Congress, BBC Sport NI examines the key issues to look out for this weekend.

Who will be the 42nd president?

Friday's main order of business is the election of the 42nd president who will take over from Armagh's Jarlath Burns in 2027.

Sligo's John Murphy, Tipperary's Ger Ryan and Wexford's Derek Kent are the candidates in the running to replace Burns at the end of his three-year tenure in 2027.

Murphy - who won a Connacht title as a player in 1975 - is aiming to become the first Sligo man to hold the presidency after holding a number of positions including Sligo chairman between 2006 and 2010 and Connacht chairman between 2021 and 2024.

Ryan served as Munster chairperson from 2022 until 2025 and is a former PRO with his native Tipperary and also at provincial level, while currently leading the Central Referees Appointments Committee.

Kent served as chair of Leinster GAA until January of this year, while he is also a former chair of the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee.

No Allianz motion a bone of contention

There are 25 motions to be debated and voted on over the course of Friday and Saturday, but the absence of one on the Allianz sponsorship of the National Leagues and All-Ireland Senior Football Championship has led to a planned protest outside Croke Park at 11:00 GMT on Saturday.

Led by Irish Sport for Palestine, they will call for the GAA to cut ties with the German company, whose Irish operation, Allianz plc, has sponsored the Leagues since 1993 and insures GAA stadiums and 2,200 clubs.

Ten counties passed motions calling for an end to the partnership due to Allianz being named in a report from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese last June, claiming the company has benefited financially from Israeli forces being in Gaza, by investing in organisations involved in the war.

Despite a petition signed by around 800 current high-profile players calling for the GAA to cut ties, its Ethics and Integrity Commission [EIC] recommended the link continue.

None of the 10 aforementioned motions have made it onto the agenda with the Rules Advisory Committee calling them "inappropriate" due to "decisions/opinions of external bodies, while the GAA's Management Committee insists the EIC report had been accepted and "the current Codes/Rules relating to sponsorship are sufficient".

On the subject of Codes/Rules, Motion 23 on the agenda proposes the GAA's Central Council will have the final authority to interpret codes as well as rules. Examples of codes include behaviour, membership and sponsorship.

Will the All-Ireland final dates move?

In terms of matters on the agenda, the headline-grabber centres on the dates of the All-Ireland finals.

This year, the All-Ireland hurling final is scheduled for 19 July with the football decider set for seven days later on 26 July.

The move to July finals began in 2022 following a switch from August deciders which replaces the old traditional September dates in 2018.

The split season between inter-county and club action has proven popular with players and clubs especially, but some have gripes with All-Ireland finals in July.

Motion 14 recommends the finals are concluded by the 32nd, rather than 30th Sunday of the calendar year. leaving a two-week gap between the hurling final (which would be played on the final Sunday in July) and football final (second week of August).

For balance, the motion then recommends there end of pre-season competitions and and clubs from the four counties who reach the All-Ireland finals will get a bye in the first round of their provincial championships.

On the same issue, Motion 8 - proposed by the Gaelic Players Association - calls to limit the inter-county season to just 30 weekends which can be extended to 31 in the event of an All-Ireland final replay.

As this is a new rule, it would only require a 50% rather than two-thirds majority.

On the theme of schedule, currently, only All-Ireland finals can go to a replay, but Motion 13 seeks to remove winner on the day to provincial finals - meaning no more penalty shootouts in Clones.

The end of preliminary quarter-finals in hurling?

Last year, the structure of the football championship was up for debate and this year a tweak to the hurling format is on the agenda.

Motion Six, proposed by Laois, has called for the end of the preliminary quarter-finals where the two Joe McDonagh Cup quarter-finalists face the third-place teams in Munster and Leinster.

Since the introduction of the McDonagh Cup in 2018, there have been 12 preliminary quarter-finals with just one win recorded by a team emerging from the secondary competitions - Laois' victory over Dublin in 2019.

The O'Moore County are in the hunt for the McDonagh Cup in 2026 but propose the final; of the competition will mark the end of the season for the respective teams, while the All-Ireland quarter-finals will be contested by the third-place team in the Leinster and Munster SHC taking on the runner-up from the opposite province.

The motion also proposes that instead of the top two at the conclusion of the Joe McDonagh round robin, the top side will go to the final, with second hosting third in a semi-final.

Motion 18 also calls for the abolition of the preliminary quarter-finals and will not be debated should Motion Six pass.

What else is up for debate?

A number of other issues catch the eye with Motion Five raised by the Clontarf club in Dublin, proposing that an inter-county player must have played eight league or championship games for his club the previous year or else will be ineligible to play for the county team.

Motion 15 calls on the introduction of a certification system for counties in order to participate in senior inter-county competitions. This will mean counties must adhere to conditions surrounding player welfare and compliance with the GAA's amateur status, which ties in with concerns over the rising expenditure on county teams.

Motion Seven from Fermanagh's Tempo Maguires calls for the All-Ireland minor finals to be restored as curtain-raisers fore the senior finals, while New York's participation in hurling inter-county competition group stages will be debated in Motion 17.

Depopulation is an issue face the GAA in rural areas and Motion 21 will debate whether to permit 12-a-side games, down from the current 13-a-side allowance.