LEITRIM boss Terry Hyland reckons Croke Park must fight inequality in football.

GAA president John Horan believes he is doing just that with an attempt to create a two-tier Championship.

1 Leitrim manager Terry Hyland Credit: Sportsfile

Yet for Hyland that will only be worthwhile if the money banked by tier-one games is pumped into tier-two sides in a bid to level the playing field.

After all, he cannot see the RTÉ or Sky Sports cameras rushing down to Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada to broadcast his men’s clashes with their rivals from other weaker counties.

Hyland — whose team was yesterday paired with Mayo in the 2020 Connacht quarter-final — told SunSport: “In this modern era it’s all about finance and it’s all about money.

“TV cameras aren’t going to run down to see Leitrim play in a tier-two competition or to Waterford or Wexford or Wicklow or whoever it is.

“It just doesn’t happen that way, that’s the way of the world.



EXTRA FINANCES NEEDED

“To be fair, those counties understand that but they need extra finances and extra coaching so they can get stronger.

“Are we putting 50 per cent of the counties in Ireland into a tier-two competition and saying, ‘You go away now and you get better yourselves’?

“What are Croke Park going to do with the extra revenue tier one will produce?

“They’ll have more money with TV rights and bigger crowds at games.

“If they want to do the thing right, they need to funnel that money back into the tier-two teams for coaching and get them better and stronger so they can compete at a higher level.”

KEEP THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM

Hyland reckons the league should be Gaelic football’s main competition but he also wants to see the provincial Championship system being kept.

At a Special Congress on Saturday week, counties will vote on a proposal to introduce a tier-two SFC.

His side had a memorable spring, securing promotion to Division 3, but their Championship campaign was forgettable.

Leitrim got a hiding from Roscommon in Connacht and bounced back against the Garden County in the qualifiers before Clare ended their summer in the second round.

LEAGUE MORE IMPORTANT?

Hyland said: “Maybe the league could be the more important competition. Instead of two tiers we could have four — and play the summer tournament as a cup competition with everyone involved.

“Maybe it’s my age profile, but I still have a grá for the provincials. Everyone still wants to win a provincial title and maybe that’s history or nostalgia.

“I know that’s a big leap to possibly make the Sam Maguire a secondary competition, but things change and life changes.” As it stands, Leitrim will play Championship football in the secondary competition if the proposal is voted through — unless they reach next summer’s Connacht final.

Counties will also vote on a Tipperary motion which states that the tier-two counties should be determined by how teams finish the 2020 NFL.

If this is carried, along with the introduction of a second-tier SFC, the counties promoted from Division 3 next year would enter a contest for the Sam Maguire Cup.

For now, Hyland is not even thinking about Mayo, adding: “We’ll worry about the draw when we get that far. We have a lot of work to do to get up there with the big boys.

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“We have a league campaign to worry about first and there’s a few biggies in there.

“There’s Cork and Derry and Tipperary and some strong teams. It’s very important for Leitrim that we can stay there and it would be nice if we could even push for promotion.

“But first, we need stay in Division 3 and build on that