The 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 127th edition of the GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football since its establishment in 1887. It was played between 31 counties of Ireland (excluding Kilkenny), London and New York.
Changes for 2014 included the introduction of black cards for "cynical" fouls, the addition of IPTV service GAAGO for international audiences and the broadcasting of live televised matches on Sky Sports for the UK audience.
The defending champions were Dublin who were beaten by Donegal in the semi-final. This led to the unexpected final pairing of Donegal and Kerry (victors over Mayo in their semi-final replay) – a first on All-Ireland Final day, and only a second meeting in Championship history. Their first Championship encounter, a 2012 quarter-final, led to victory for Donegal, who marched on to lay claim to that year's Sam Maguire Cup.
Kerry, with goals from Paul Geaney and Kieran Donaghy, won their 37th title after a 2–9 to 0–12 win against Donegal.
Teams
A total of 33 teams contested the championship. These include 31 teams from Ireland, as well as London and New York. As in previous years, Kilkenny footballers decided not to field a team. New York does not participate in the qualifiers.
Broadcasting
In the first year of a deal running from 2014 until 2016, a total of 45 provincial and All-Ireland championship matches in hurling and football were broadcast live on television in Ireland. A total of 31 games were shown by RTÉ and 20 by Sky Sports for the first time, both All-Ireland Semi Final and Finals were shared coverage between the two broadcasters. TV3's six year-involvement with broadcasting games came to an end in 2013. Sky Sports also broadcast live the All-Ireland hurling and football semi-finals and finals along with RTÉ.
Rachel Wyse and Brian Carney were announced as presenters of Sky's coverage, with Dave McIntyre and Mike Finnerty as commentators. Analysts were Peter Canavan and Paul Earley.
Australia's terrestrial Seven Network broadcast all 45 Championship games.
In May, the GAA and RTÉ launched a new streaming service called GAAGO intended to stream championship games worldwide. The subscription-based service was available to fans everywhere in the world outside of the island of Ireland, including all the games broadcast in Ireland exclusively by Sky Sports. All 45 televised games from the football and hurling championships, as broadcast by both RTÉ and Sky were available to watch on GAAGO. For Great Britain, the games broadcast by Sky were only available through Sky. The price for a worldwide GAAGO 'Season Pass' was €110 while in Britain, the GB Pass was €60. A pay-per-game option is available for €10, and this rose to €14 for the quarter-final, semi-final and final stages of the championship.
Stadia and locations
Innovations and utilities
The inclusion of GAAGO and Sky Sports in the Championship season. Central Council decided to defer the implementation of the clock/hooter until the 2015 championships.
Provincial championships
Connacht Senior Football Championship
Leinster Senior Football Championship
Munster Senior Football Championship
Ulster Senior Football Championship
All-Ireland Series
Qualifiers
Round 1
The first round consisted of all teams that failed to reach their respective provincial semi-finals. 16 teams in total took part. The draw took place on Monday 9 June 2014 on RTÉ Radio 1.
2014 saw a new qualifying system implemented. The teams were split into groups A and B depending on which side of the draw they had played in their provincial championships. Each team was drawn to face an opponent from the same group as themselves, meaning A teams were paired with A teams and B teams were paired with B teams. Four games were instituted for each round, with Round 1A staged on 21 June and Round 1B taking place on 28 June.
Connacht (2) London Leitrim
Leinster (7) Laois Longford Offaly Wicklow Carlow Louth Westmeath
Munster (2) Limerick Waterford
Ulster (5) Derry Fermanagh Cavan Down Tyrone
Round 2
The second round of the qualifiers featured the eight winning teams of Round 1A and Round 1B, along with the defeated teams from the provincial semi-finals. The draw saw each team from the previous qualifier round face a beaten semi-finalist, with the eight winners of these matches progressing to Round 3.