The Celtic Cup is a competition for players, aged 16 and 17 years old, who are not participating in State Examinations during May and June 2016. 38 regional and county teams will participate in the competition.
The programme will run from Wednesday 4th May to Saturday 18th
The ethos of the competition is a developmental one, where a 7 week programme of meaningful games is supplemented by a 1 to 1 ratio of games to training.
Each team will play a minimum of 4 games through a programme that is structured on the basis of Group Stages, Qualifiers and Play Offs.
The Group Stages will consist of 7 Groups of teams selected on a geographical and developmental basis. Matches at the Group Stages will be played on Wednesdays.
After the Group Stages, teams will be graded on foot of their performance and will be assigned to 1 of 4 Divisions prior to participating in the Qualifiers and Play-Offs where they will play against opposition of a comparative developmental level,
4 Finals will be played in Croke Park on Saturday June 18th, 2016.
In Cork, we will target this competition at players outside of county underage panels. At present, we will be entering two teams from within the county. Players on Cork Minor panels and Cork U17 panels in either football or hurling will be excluded. Trials will be held for players outside of these groups in the next month or so, following the official formation of county U17 panels. Further details to follow.
