The AIB All-Ireland club hurling semi-finals will be played as a Croke Park double header on the same afternoon as the World Cup final.
St Thomas’s-Dunloy will get underway at 1.30pm on Sunday week at GAA headquarters followed by the eagerly anticipated repeat of last season’s final between holders Ballygunner and Ballyhale Shamrocks at 3.30pm.
The World Cup final in Qatar kicks off at 3pm and the overlap with the climax of the most widely viewed event in global sport will do nothing to boost the attendance at Croke Park.
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The Leinster Council has opted to fix the latter stages of its senior club competitions for Croke Park in recent weeks and attendances have been notably small, with the lower Hogan Stand the only section of the ground open to spectators.
Due to a wedding in the St Thomas’s club, their semi-final couldn’t be fixed for the Saturday but it was still anticipated that the Ballygunner-Ballyhale game would go ahead on that day, December 17.
FBD Semple Stadium would have been the obvious venue for that pairing but the pitch in Thurles is out of commission for the time being due to works being carried out on it.
And though Wexford county board had offered Chadwicks Wexford Park as an alternative venue and there was talk of a coin toss for home advantage, the Central Competitions Control Committee instead opted to form a Croke Park double header.
The All-Ireland club hurling final is due to take place on January 22.
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