The 2016 Etihad Airways GAA World Games was a global competition of Gaelic football, hurling, and camogie run by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), featuring teams from six continents. This was the 2nd GAA World Games and the first to be played in Ireland, with the first ever tournament played in Abu Dhabi the previous summer. The opening ceremony and throw in was held on August 6 at Croke Park, while the majority of the games were held at University College Dublin from 9 August to 11 August 2016, with the finals being played on Friday, 12 August 2016 at Croke Park.
The GAA's four main sports (men's Gaelic football), ladies' Gaelic football, hurling and camogie (women's version of hurling) were featured at the event. Each sport consisted of two separate tournaments: one for native players (born and raised in the country they are competing for) and one for Irish born players (born in Ireland before emigrating to whatever team they are playing for), creating a total of 8 separate competitions.
Each game has 9 players a side with 9 minutes a half. As the tournament progresses the game time increases to 12 minutes a half in the knockout and then 15 minutes a half in the shield, plate and final games. This is different to the usual game which has 15 players a side with 30 minutes a half. During the four days 254 games were played with the 8 finals being played in Croke Park. With the games at UCD having free entry
The games were not broadcast live but Irish language public broadcaster TG4 later broadcast highlights, features and interviews of the tournament in December that year. The program was also made available on TG4 Player, the broadcasters on demand streaming network.[1] The opening and closing ceremonies were televised around the world.[citation needed]
Over 1,100 competitors from 56 teams within 20 countries, stretching 6 continents took part in the event. Most of these competitors are Irish people living abroad, but up to a third of them are foreign born players. China and South Africa competed with completely non-Irish teams.[2]
Teams were put into groups of 3 or 4 for the preliminary stage and played off in a double or single round-robin format respectively. The top team from each group of three and the top two from each group of four would go into the Cup play-offs on Wednesday while any team that did not qualify for the Cup play-offs would go into the Shield play-offs on Wednesday. The hurling competitions were the only exceptions, where there was only one group of three in both the native and Irish divisions, therefore there was no shield competition, and the top two from each of those groups went into the finals on Friday.
In both ladies' football divisions, camogie and the men's football Irish division, there was only one Cup play-off group. The teams in it competed in a round-robin format with the top two going into the finals on Friday. Any team that did not finish in the top 2 went into the Plate play-offs on Thursday. Due to the large number of teams in the men's native football, there were two Cup play-off groups with the top team from each going into the final on Friday, all other teams to not qualify for the final went into the Plate play-offs on Thursday.[citation needed]
Similar to the Cup Playoffs, the Shield play-offs were contested in a round-robin format with the top team in each group going into the Shield final on Thursday, any team that did not qualify for the Shield final went into the Plate Playoffs on Friday.[citation needed]
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