THE ALL-Ireland Football Final is to be moved in 2018 due to the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland.
The GAA Director of games administration and player welfare Feargal McGill said the All-Ireland Football final will be held in September 2018.
According to The Irish Examiner, Mr McGill said the 2018 date for the All-Ireland Final has been confirmed as September 2 with the hurling decider staged on August 19.
He told the paper those Sundays had been pencilled in as the ultimate days of each competition next year.
The weekend of August 26 has been left vacant in the event Pope Francis attends the World Meeting of Families’ mass that Sunday.
Following an audience with His Holiness, President Michael D Higgins said 'it is His hope and intention' to attend the 2018 gathering in Dublin in 2018.
Dublin is set to host the six-day religious celebration and Croke Park is expected to hold the concluding mass.
From 2019, the All-Ireland Finals in both football and hurling are expected to be held in August in accordance with the decision made at Annual Congress earlier this year.
Just days out from the draw for the 2018 senior football championship, Mr McGill and the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC), of which the four provincial secretaries are members, have met twice since Special Congress to discuss how next year’s master fixtures calendar will look.
The Club Players Association have also been consulted.
According to the paper, both football semi-finals could take place on August 11 and 12, with the hurling last-four matches being played over the August Bank Holiday along with the final round of football’s Super 8.
There is the possibility that both provincial hurling finals could be played on the same weekend.
Both the Leinster and Munster football finals could also be staged on the same Saturday evening or on one Saturday after another.
