The Connacht GAA Football Under-20 Championship, known simply as the Connacht Under-20 Championship, is an annual

inter-county Inter-county, is Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) List of Gaelic games terminology, terminology which refers to competitions or matches between County (Gaelic games), counties, as used in Gaelic games (differently from legal counties). The term c ...

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

competition organised by the Connacht Council of the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

(GAA). It is the highest inter-county football competition for male players between the ages of 17 and 20 in the province of Connacht. The championship was contested as the Connacht Under-21 Championship between

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

before changing to an under-20 age category from

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. It is sponsored by

EirGrid EirGrid plc is the state-owned electric power transmission operator in Ireland. It is a public limited company registered under the Companies Acts; its shares are held by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. It is one ...

. The final, currently held in March, serves as the culmination of a series of games played during a three-week period, and the results determine which team receives the J. J. Fahy Cup. The championship has always been played on a

straight knockout A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

basis whereby once a team loses they are eliminated from the championship. The Connacht Championship is an integral part of the wider

GAA Football Under-20 All-Ireland Championship The GAA Football Under-20 All-Ireland Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the EirGrid GAA Football Under-20 All-Ireland Championship) is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association ...

. The winners of the Connacht final, like their counterparts in the other three provinces, advance to the semi-final stage of the All-Ireland series of games. Five teams currently participate in the Connacht Championship. Galway are the most successful Connacht county with 6 All Ireland titles at the grade. Mayo have 25 titles Connacht, followed by

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

with 21 titles. The title has been won at least once by all five teams, with four of them winning the title more than once. Sligo are the 2 time title holders, defeating Galway by 0-14 to 0-13 in the 2023 final.

Current format

Overview

The Connacht Championship is a

single elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

. Each team is afforded only one defeat before being eliminated from the championship. Pairings for matches are drawn at random and there is currently no seeding. Each match is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn there is a period of extra time, however, if both sides are still level at the end of extra time a replay takes place and so on until a winner is found.

Progression

Qualification for subsequent competitions

The Connacht Championship winners gain automatic entry to the semi-final stage of the All-Ireland Championship.

Managers

Managers Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...

in the Connacht Championship are involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection, and sourcing of players from the club championships. Their influence varies from county-to-county and is related to the individual county boards. The manager is assisted by a team of two or three selectors and an extensive backroom team consisting of various coaches. The under-20 team manager also works closely with the senior team manager due to an overlap of players on both teams. Prior to the development of the concept of a manager in the 1970s, teams were usually managed by a team of selectors with one member acting as chairman.

Roll of honour

List of finals

Records and statistics

Final

Team

*Most titles: 25: ** Mayo (1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2018) *Most consecutive title wins: 4: ** Mayo (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976) ** Mayo (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986) ** Mayo (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) *Most appearances in a final: 35: **

(1964, 1965, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020) *Most appearances in a final without winning: 9: **

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

(1979, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2017)

Teams

By decade

The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of Connacht Championship titles, is as follows: * 1960s: 2 each for Galway (1964-65), Roscommon (1966-69) and Mayo (1967-68) * 1970s: 6 for Mayo (1970-71-73-74-75-76) * 1980s: 5 for Mayo (1980-83-84-85-86) * 1990s: 5 for Galway (1990-92-93-96-98) * 2000s: 7 for Mayo (2001-03-04-06-07-08-09) * 2010s: 4 each for Roscommon (2010-12-14-15) and Galway (2011-13-17-19)

Gaps

Top three longest gaps between successive championship titles: * 17 years:

Roscommon Roscommon (; ; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60 road (Ireland), N60, N61 road (Ireland), N61 and N63 road (Irelan ...

(1982-1999) * 14 years: Leitrim (1977-1991) * 11 years:

(1999-2010)

References

Sources

* History of Connacht GAA (2002)
Roll of Honour on gaainfo.com
{{Under-21 Championships 3

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

1964 establishments in Ireland Recurring sporting events established in 1964