By Ciaran Woods

c.woods@gaeliclife.com

WITH just over a week until the first ball is kicked in the Ulster Senior Football Championship, it seems that who will win on the field is not the only matter unresolved as the row over pitch-side advertising rumbles on.

Longford were this week successful in blocking the GAA's attempts to have them cover all existing advertising around their Pearse Park pitch ahead of their Leinster Championship meeting with Westmeath. Following the new sponsorship agreement with Toyota, Vodafone and Ulster Bank, Croke Park had directed the Longford board that these would be the only boards allowed to be visible to cameras on the day of the game.

That was of course to the displeasure of Longford officials, whose own sponsors had paid annual sums for their advertising boards to be placed around the field, and who the county said would be annoyed at such a move. Longford declared that they would be resisting the proposals, sticking loyal to their long-serving sponsors, and in the end forced Croke Park to back down.

Next weekend Antrim host Cavan at Casement Park, and it is unclear what impact the new sponsor regime will have. Antrim do not have their advertising at pitch level, but instead higher up on the walls of the terraces and on the front of the stand. Due to the vagueness of the Croke Park directive and events in Longford, it remains unclear whether this signage would be allowed to stay or would have to go.

Later on in the championship programme, games are set to be hosted at Ballybofey, Brewster Park, Clones, Breffni Park, and Healy Park. The authorities could have a headache for these games, as all of those grounds have their own advertising boards around the playing surfaces, and both county boards and sponsors will be keenly awaiting the outcome.

Ulster Council Secretary Danny Murphy earlier this week said that the provincial authority would go along with the directives, while the GAA's commercial manager Dermot Power declared events in Longford as, "an inevitable teething problem." Now that Longford have dug their heels in, it will be no surprise to see other counties follow their lead.