The abolition of the under-21 football championship and compulsory extra-time in All-Ireland finals are among the proposals contained in the discussion paper on Player Overtraining and Burnout and the GAA Fixtures Calendar, which was launched on Tuesday morning in Croke Park by GAA Director General, Páraic Duffy.

In his annual report to last February’s annual congress, Duffy pointed out that there had been a number of recommendations on these issues in recent years.

“We have now had five (eight, published between 2004 and this year, were reviewed for the document) major reports that, from varying perspectives, have addressed many of the same issues concerning club fixtures, the needs of the club player, inter-county competition structures and player welfare.”

Duffy undertook that his office would, “in conjunction with our Games Administration and Player Welfare section, will produce an extensive paper later this year - based on the wide range of proposals already made - that will draw on all of these proposals and allow the Association to decide how it will address these player welfare issues and the needs of the club player.”

That document has now been published and bases its concerns on two principal issues: the over-activity of players between the ages of 17 and 21 - “who are being asked to train too much, to play too many matches for too many teams and are afforded too little time for rest and recovery” - and the lack of a “fair, evenly-distributed and planned schedule of club matches throughout the year due to the scheduling of inter-county fixtures”.

The thrust of the solutions is accordingly to restrict the number of both eligibility for under-age grades and the extent of inter-county fixtures.

Summary of proposals:

1. Re-grade the inter-county minor grade from under-18 to under-17. [FROM 2018]

2. Play the new minor championships alongside the senior championships as is currently the case. [FROM 2018]

3. Discontinue the under-21 football inter-county championship. [FROM 2018]

4. Conclude the All-Ireland under-21 inter-county championship before the senior final. [FROM 2018]

5. Increase the number of national league weekends, doubling up football and hurling fixtures. [FROM 2017]

6. Discontinue the AFL Division One semi-finals.

7. Establish in rule that players, who are not in the match-day panel of 26 must be available to their clubs. [FROM 2017]

8. Bring forward the senior All-Irelands by two weeks with the football final played on the first Sunday in September and the hurling two weeks previously. [FROM 2017]

9. Play extra time at the end of all drawn championship matches. [FROM 2017]

10. Discontinue the All-Ireland inter-county junior football and intermediate hurling championships. [FROM 2017]

11. Introduce a calendar-year fixtures schedule.