By John Martin

ANTRIM chairman John McSparran has slammed the latest proposals from the Hurling Development Committee (HDC) for the restructuring of the All-Ireland senior hurling championship as "beyond belief."

The HDC have drawn up a new format for the Liam MacCarthy Cup which will see Antrim and one of the Leinster counties – probably Laois - left out in the cold, and competing in a new Christy Ring Cup set-up.

The new format would reduce the number of teams in the Leinster championship to five and proposes that both the Leinster and Munster championships are played on a round-robin basis.

Meanwhile a new 'Tier 1A' competition – which would replace the current Christy Ring Cup – comprising of six teams has been suggested, with the finalists then joining the MacCarthy Cup at the quarter-final stage. The six teams in this new Tier 1A are Antrim, Laois, Westmeath, Meath, Carlow and Kildare.

They would split into two groups of three, play each other home and away with the top two sides meeting in the final and then going on to face the third-placed teams from the Munster and Leinster championship round-robin groups.

"It's another total and utter disaster coming from the HDC in terms of promoting hurling. How anyone can suggest that after playing in the Christy Ring Cup, either of the two teams would be competitive in the Liam MacCarthy Cup is beyond me," said McSparran.

"It is clear that Antrim and Laois are being shafted. We are not that far off either Wexford, Offaly or Dublin. We have beaten Wexford and Offaly this year, Laois have beaten Offaly, so why are we getting sent down?"

The hurling championship now gets re-jigged virtually on an annual basis. In 2007 Antrim got the short end of the stick again when the format paired them with Galway in the first round every year.

"Last year they made all these changes on the back of trying to free up weekends for club activity. This format certainly isn't going to do that, so it is going back on that theory," McSparran said.

"It serves no purpose whatsoever, it's another con job. How anyone thinks that will ever make Antrim competitive in the MacCarthy Cup is beyond belief."

But McSparran has doubts over whether the proposals will even be debated. It will be difficult to persuade the Munster Council in particular to make any changes to their senior championship, while Galway have traditionally resisted a move to Leinster.

"I don't think these proposals are a realistic option. We have had a meeting with Pauric Duffy and Nickey Brennan and we presented them with three different options which would base championship status on league status," said the Saffron chairman.

"They are going to speak to Galway and speak to Leinster and then come up with something for Special Congress. The HDC have come up with these off their own bat.

"It is questionable whether it will even get onto the clár for the Special Congress in September or October."