Sligo women’s gaelic footballers will play junior championship football in 2023 following an unsuccessful appeal to the LGFA’s Central Council against their relegation from the All-Ireland intermediate championship.
A vote at Tuesday night’s Central Council meeting failed to get the required two thirds majority so Sligo and Down are now automatically relegated to junior football next year – without any play-offs.
The 2022 All-Ireland intermediate football championship format had originally laid out that the bottom-placed team in each of the four groups would contest relegation play-off semi-finals, with the two losers making the drop to junior football the following year.
The LGFA introduced an additional rule earlier at the start of this season, stipulating that provincial championship winners would be exempt from any relegation this year.
It subsequently transpired that two provincial champions, Leitrim (Connacht) and Kildare (Leinster) finished bottom of groups A and C respectively.
This left just two counties, Down (Group B) and Sligo (Group D) in the relegation play-offs so the LGFA decided mid-competition to drop the play-off games and automatically relegated Down and Sligo.
It was this latest decision which Sligo took issue with – as the county felt it was unfair for them not to get a play-off opportunity to try and preserve their intermediate championship status.
It’s understood Sligo’s appeal on Tuesday night fell just three votes short of the required two-thirds majority.
