2022 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
The 2022 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is the 135th edition of the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament since its establishment in 1887. Thirty one of the thirty two Irish counties take part – Kilkenny will not compete. London and New York are competing for the first time since 2019 due to the public health restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The championship splits into a two-tier system for the first time, with the Tailteann Cup being the second-tier competition for those teams that do not qualify for  the tier 1 Sam Maguire Cup competition. To qualify for the Sam Maguire competition, a county team needs to finish in Division 1 or 2 (after promotion and relegation were determined in the 2022 National Football League) or reach their provincial final. This system is planned to only be used for the 2022 season, with it moving to exactly sixteen teams continuing in the Sam Maguire competition from 2023 onwards. Tyrone are the defending champions. The draws for the provincial championships took place on Saturday November 27th 2021. The All-Ireland final is due to be played on 24 July  2022 at Croke Park in Dublin. Competition format. Provincial Championships format. Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster each organise a provincial championship. All teams who lose a match in their provincial championship enter either the All-Ireland qualifiers or the Tailteann Cup. All provincial matches are knock-out. Qualifiers format. All counties in the competition play in their provincial championships. However, only the counties in National Football League Division 1 and Division 2 play in the All-Ireland Championship qualifiers after losing a game in their provincial championships. The counties in National Football League Division 3 and Division 4 (as they  stand when the 2022 league concludes after the resulting promotion and relegation changes have been applied ) do not progress into the All-Ireland series and instead enter the second-tier Tailteann Cup once they are knocked out of their provincial championship. The only exception to this is that all eight provincial finalists progress, regardless of their league division; the four provincial champions progress to the All-Ireland quarter-finals, while the four beaten provincial finalists will play off against the best four teams from the Qualifiers for a place in the quarter-finals. Division 1 and 2 teams who are  knocked out of their province without reaching the provincial final play off in the Qualifiers, on a straight knock-out basis. The four survivors play off with the four beaten provincial championship finalists, in a final qualifier round to complete the double-elimination format. The four winners of this final qualifier round join the four provincial champions in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. All-Ireland format. The four provincial champions play the four winners of the final round of the qualifiers in the quarter-finals. Two semi-finals and a final follow. All matches are knock-out. Provincial championships. Connacht  Senior Football Championship. London and New York were withdrawn from the 2020 and 2021 Connacht championships due to international travel restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but both are back in the 2022 season. Bracket. Final. The winners advance to the All-Ireland and the losers advance to the All-Ireland Qualifiers. Bracket. Semi-finals. The draw took place after the Quarter Finals. Bracket. Quarter-finals. The 4 non-finalists of the 2021 championship entered this round. Semi-finals. The 2 finalists of the 2021 championship entered this round along with the 2 quarter-final winners. Final. The winners  advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals while the runners-up advance to the qualifiers. Bracket. Preliminary round. Two counties were randomly drawn to face each other in the preliminary round. Quarter-finals. Seven counties were given a bye to this stage and are joined by the preliminary round winner. All-Ireland Qualifiers. Qualifiers Preliminary Round (if required). If more than eight teams from Divisions 1 and 2 fail to reach their provincial final, a qualifier preliminary round is held to reduce the number of teams to eight. Team to enter this stage: The following counties did not qualify for  the Qualifiers due to the new rules introduced in 2022: Offaly, Laois, New York, London, Wicklow, Antrim, Fermanagh, Sligo, Longford, Wexford, Down. Fixtures 21/22 May 2022 Qualifiers Round 1. The remaining qualifier team's playoff to reduce the number of teams to four. Qualifiers Round 2. The four beaten provincial finalists play the remaining four qualifier teams. The four winners progress to the All-Ireland Quarter Finals where they play the four provincial champions. All-Ireland. All-Ireland Quarter-finals. The four provincial champions play the four winners of the qualifiers round 2. Championship statistics. Scoring Events. All records exclude  extra time.