The GAA say it was a "hard decision" to scrap this year's provincial and All-Ireland Club Championships but insist it was made to help benefit the many rather than the few.
Teams who win their county championship won't progress beyond that competition this season with the GAA instead focusing on providing an 11 week window for local club games.
"We have to build in a rest period for people," the GAA's director of player, club & games administration, Feargal McGill said of their reasoning. "We also have third-level competitions that have an impact on that. Something has to give and I suppose our priority as an association, broadly speaking, and Tom Ryan and John Horan would have been exceptionally strong on this, the most important thing is to get a good club window in 2020.
"We could have crammed the club window for county boards if we wanted and open the window, if you like, for provincial and All-Ireland club championships. But we have 1,700 clubs that need to be active. There's only 32 clubs that win a county title.
"It ultimately came down to giving the time to the many as opposed to the few. That's just a hard decision that we have to make, not one we're thrilled about but a hard decision we just had to make."
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