SO MUCH TIME has now passed since John Durcan and other officials at grassroots level in Mayo opted to switch to a so-called summer football season that he can’t remember the exact level of resistance or reasons for why it was feared it wouldn’t work.
“I know there were some issues at the time about clashing with Gaelic football and all that kind of stuff, but we got around all that. We spoke to the clubs and laid out our plans and the reasons for switching,” Durcan, the longstanding secretary of the Mayo Football League, says.
Durcan’s memory is understandably hazy given it was around the time that the Republic of Ireland appeared at the 1994 World Cup – Ray Houghton may even have been still tumbling on the pitch at Giants Stadium – that plans were put into motion to rip up their winter-autumn schedule.
“We probably did it because we felt that pitches would be much better in the summer time, that particularly the skills of the game would improve. And we also felt that if we could play in evenings and we’re not dependent on floodlights or anything like that, it would definitely increase participation,” Durcan tells The 42.
They were correct, and 30 years on the growth is continuing.
At first it was the adult section of the grassroots game that began a three-year probation period.
“But we didn’t need that long and before that time was up, all the clubs voted it in,” he says.
The entire schoolboys’ side of the game followed suit. And it was boys, with only a handful of girls dotted around the county taking part in organised football.
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What has happened in the 30 years since?
“Just a phenomenal increase in participation at all ages for both boys and girls,” Durcan says, of a league calendar that usually begins in March for the youngest children and operates on alternate days to Gaelic games for respective age groups.
After 15 years of the new calendar, Durcan’s register showed there were over 1,000 boys playing throughout schoolboy level, including 18-year-olds.
In 2025 the number of boys up to the age of 15 is 4,855, with a further 2,021 registered between Under-17 (489), Under-18 (203) and senior level (1,329).
For girls, the stats are equally as encouraging with the system continually strengthening from a point where, two decades ago, participation was close to non-existent.
In 2024, there were 1,200 girls up to the age of 16 playing in Mayo. Those figures don’t account for the 20 teams at Under-17 and 19 level that fall under the umbrella of the Mayo Women’s League.
The most recent figures for this season show an increase of 200 girls under the age of 16 in organised football. In Mayo, May to July is the opportune time for football as the GAA calendar is relatively bare at club level.
“Why would we not choose those months to be playing the greatest amount of football, it’s a no-brainer to me,” Durcan says. “But, I mean, all I’ve ever asked anybody to do is just try it, that’s all.
“I suppose there is a tendency in Ireland, there’s a kind of a reluctance to change. There’s no doubt that we would not have the participation levels in Mayo now if we hadn’t summer football or the aligned calendar. Absolutely no way.”
Mayo is not a total outlier, either.
A couple of hours south in Munster, officials at grassroots level in Clare began the process of engaging with counterparts in the GAA to work in tandem to schedule their respective seasons.
This was March 2007.
Eighteen years on, it’s a relationship that remains intact, one driven by the desire of parents and volunteers to maximise participation. “It’s cooperation and collaboration over competition,” Denis Hynes, FAI Development Officer for the county says of a system that now allows for football to be played a minimum of five days a week throughout the year.
Again, the numbers reflect a vibrant and cohesive multi-sport model.
In 2005, prior to the switch to an aligned calendar season, there were 55 teams for Under-11 to Under-16 in the Clare Schoolboy Soccer League (CSSL).
That has risen to 129 teams for Under-12 to Under-16 this season, with a further 80 teams from Under-8 to Under-11. As recently as 2010, there were zero girls’ teams; this season, there are 45 and Clare has produced an international at all levels from schools to senior women’s.
“We designed the calendar based on the days of the week that the GAA was on,” Hynes says, explaining how of the 20 players on their most recent Kennedy Cup squad, nine are on the county’s Under-14 Gaelic football panel and nine are on the hurling panel.
“So, there is a lot of crossover, the same people, same kids, same parents. So it was very easy, open doors. And in fairness people were willing to talk, to work together, which has been reinforced.
“So that’s really where the magic of it happens now. So it is workable, it is doable. People have to think bigger picture, you know.”
Officials in Clare carried out an analysis of their old calendar from 2002 to 2007 before begininng a two-year process of consultation with clubs in their own code, as well as Gaelic football and hurling, that resulted in the switch to summer football.
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The Lees Road Sports Complex in Ennis, built by Clare County Council in 2005, is also a testament to multi-sport cohesion with football, GAA, and rugby pitches all in the one facility. “And the majority of usage is soccer,” Hynes says.
The success in these two counties – both of which have proud traditions in Gaelic games – is an indication that fears around the current FAI plan to phase in the aligned calendar season – starting next January and concluding in 2028 – throughout the country are misplaced.
One section of the lengthy briefing document sent to members of the Oireachtas by the newly established Grassroots Amateur Football Clubs of Ireland (GAFCI) ahead of presentations from the FAI last week stood out.
As detailed in a report on The 42 earlier this week, GAFCI, which says it is a representative body of 600 clubs from 17 counties, has accused the FAI of “irresponsible if not reckless” actions relating to the soon-to-be implemented aligned calendar season.
“In December 2024 the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) General Assembly under the Player Pathways Plan passed an Ordinary Resolution with a 57% majority to remove the right of clubs to schedule their season in the traditional UEFA/FIFA Winter – School Calander Season and align to the Summer Season as played by Professional Clubs in the League of Ireland and some Grassroots Leagues,” a paragraph in the letter, seen by The 42, states.
“By forcing clubs into the summer season despite our clubs highlighting the stark implications for participation numbers, the FAI are inadvertently promoting a decrease in Sports Participation.”
The examples based in fact rather than fear from Clare and Mayo offer a stringent counter-argument to those who are adamant that an aligned calendar will force a majority of kids to choose between sports. The assumption that GAA will simply win out or that participation levels for football will plummet across the board do not tally with reality in two counties that are steeped in GAA tradition with a flourishing football scene.
“If you want to make something work, it will happen,” Durcan says. “And if you want to make sure it doesn’t work, you will find a hundred ways and reasons, and they will all seem legitimate.”
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Phenomenal growth of summer football in Clare and Mayo shows FAI plan is worth trying
SO MUCH TIME has now passed since John Durcan and other officials at grassroots level in Mayo opted to switch to a so-called summer football season that he can’t remember the exact level of resistance or reasons for why it was feared it wouldn’t work.
“I know there were some issues at the time about clashing with Gaelic football and all that kind of stuff, but we got around all that. We spoke to the clubs and laid out our plans and the reasons for switching,” Durcan, the longstanding secretary of the Mayo Football League, says.
Durcan’s memory is understandably hazy given it was around the time that the Republic of Ireland appeared at the 1994 World Cup – Ray Houghton may even have been still tumbling on the pitch at Giants Stadium – that plans were put into motion to rip up their winter-autumn schedule.
“We probably did it because we felt that pitches would be much better in the summer time, that particularly the skills of the game would improve. And we also felt that if we could play in evenings and we’re not dependent on floodlights or anything like that, it would definitely increase participation,” Durcan tells The 42.
They were correct, and 30 years on the growth is continuing.
At first it was the adult section of the grassroots game that began a three-year probation period.
“But we didn’t need that long and before that time was up, all the clubs voted it in,” he says.
The entire schoolboys’ side of the game followed suit. And it was boys, with only a handful of girls dotted around the county taking part in organised football.
What has happened in the 30 years since?
“Just a phenomenal increase in participation at all ages for both boys and girls,” Durcan says, of a league calendar that usually begins in March for the youngest children and operates on alternate days to Gaelic games for respective age groups.
After 15 years of the new calendar, Durcan’s register showed there were over 1,000 boys playing throughout schoolboy level, including 18-year-olds.
In 2025 the number of boys up to the age of 15 is 4,855, with a further 2,021 registered between Under-17 (489), Under-18 (203) and senior level (1,329).
For girls, the stats are equally as encouraging with the system continually strengthening from a point where, two decades ago, participation was close to non-existent.
In 2024, there were 1,200 girls up to the age of 16 playing in Mayo. Those figures don’t account for the 20 teams at Under-17 and 19 level that fall under the umbrella of the Mayo Women’s League.
The most recent figures for this season show an increase of 200 girls under the age of 16 in organised football. In Mayo, May to July is the opportune time for football as the GAA calendar is relatively bare at club level.
“Why would we not choose those months to be playing the greatest amount of football, it’s a no-brainer to me,” Durcan says. “But, I mean, all I’ve ever asked anybody to do is just try it, that’s all.
“I suppose there is a tendency in Ireland, there’s a kind of a reluctance to change. There’s no doubt that we would not have the participation levels in Mayo now if we hadn’t summer football or the aligned calendar. Absolutely no way.”
Mayo is not a total outlier, either.
A couple of hours south in Munster, officials at grassroots level in Clare began the process of engaging with counterparts in the GAA to work in tandem to schedule their respective seasons.
This was March 2007.
Eighteen years on, it’s a relationship that remains intact, one driven by the desire of parents and volunteers to maximise participation. “It’s cooperation and collaboration over competition,” Denis Hynes, FAI Development Officer for the county says of a system that now allows for football to be played a minimum of five days a week throughout the year.
Again, the numbers reflect a vibrant and cohesive multi-sport model.
In 2005, prior to the switch to an aligned calendar season, there were 55 teams for Under-11 to Under-16 in the Clare Schoolboy Soccer League (CSSL).
That has risen to 129 teams for Under-12 to Under-16 this season, with a further 80 teams from Under-8 to Under-11. As recently as 2010, there were zero girls’ teams; this season, there are 45 and Clare has produced an international at all levels from schools to senior women’s.
“We designed the calendar based on the days of the week that the GAA was on,” Hynes says, explaining how of the 20 players on their most recent Kennedy Cup squad, nine are on the county’s Under-14 Gaelic football panel and nine are on the hurling panel.
“So, there is a lot of crossover, the same people, same kids, same parents. So it was very easy, open doors. And in fairness people were willing to talk, to work together, which has been reinforced.
“So that’s really where the magic of it happens now. So it is workable, it is doable. People have to think bigger picture, you know.”
Officials in Clare carried out an analysis of their old calendar from 2002 to 2007 before begininng a two-year process of consultation with clubs in their own code, as well as Gaelic football and hurling, that resulted in the switch to summer football.
The Lees Road Sports Complex in Ennis, built by Clare County Council in 2005, is also a testament to multi-sport cohesion with football, GAA, and rugby pitches all in the one facility. “And the majority of usage is soccer,” Hynes says.
The success in these two counties – both of which have proud traditions in Gaelic games – is an indication that fears around the current FAI plan to phase in the aligned calendar season – starting next January and concluding in 2028 – throughout the country are misplaced.
One section of the lengthy briefing document sent to members of the Oireachtas by the newly established Grassroots Amateur Football Clubs of Ireland (GAFCI) ahead of presentations from the FAI last week stood out.
As detailed in a report on The 42 earlier this week, GAFCI, which says it is a representative body of 600 clubs from 17 counties, has accused the FAI of “irresponsible if not reckless” actions relating to the soon-to-be implemented aligned calendar season.
“In December 2024 the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) General Assembly under the Player Pathways Plan passed an Ordinary Resolution with a 57% majority to remove the right of clubs to schedule their season in the traditional UEFA/FIFA Winter – School Calander Season and align to the Summer Season as played by Professional Clubs in the League of Ireland and some Grassroots Leagues,” a paragraph in the letter, seen by The 42, states.
“By forcing clubs into the summer season despite our clubs highlighting the stark implications for participation numbers, the FAI are inadvertently promoting a decrease in Sports Participation.”
The examples based in fact rather than fear from Clare and Mayo offer a stringent counter-argument to those who are adamant that an aligned calendar will force a majority of kids to choose between sports. The assumption that GAA will simply win out or that participation levels for football will plummet across the board do not tally with reality in two counties that are steeped in GAA tradition with a flourishing football scene.
“If you want to make something work, it will happen,” Durcan says. “And if you want to make sure it doesn’t work, you will find a hundred ways and reasons, and they will all seem legitimate.”
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FAI League of Ireland numbers dont lie Soccer