The 2025 Tailteann Cup was the fourth edition of the Tailteann Cup, a Gaelic football competition contested by the seventeen county teams that did not qualify for the last 16 of the 2025 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Kildare were the winners, defeating Limerick in the final. Kildare will thus qualify automatically for the last 16 of the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.https://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/saturday-sport-kildare-face-limerick-in-tailteann-cup-final-1782799.html Format
The 17 teams who compete in the 2025 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship but did not qualify for the round-robin group stages competed in the competition.
advanced directly to the preliminary quarter-finals. The other 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Seeding was determined by placing in the 2025 National Football League (after promotion and relegation was applied and after NFL division finals).
Each team in a group played the other teams in their group once; each team getting one home fixture, one away and one neutral. Teams are awarded two points for a win and one point for a draw.
The four preliminary quarter-finals consisted of: The four second-placed teams (home), against and the three third-placed teams with the best record (away).
At the quarter-final stage the four group winners played the four preliminary quarter-final winners.
The semi-finals and final were played in Croke Park. All knock-out matches were "winner on the day". The key prize for the winner of the 2026 Tailteann Cup was to qualify for the group stage of 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship regardless of their league position.
Teams
General information Seventeen county teams competed in the Tailteann Cup. Only one, , does so as a previous winner of the cup. CountyPosition in 2024Appearance Antrim—1951—4th Carlow—1944—4th Fermanagh———4th Kildare—200019282nd Laois—2003—4th Leitrim—1994—4th Limerick—189618963rd London———4th Longford—1968—4th Offaly—199719824th New York———4th Sligo—2007—3rd Tipperary—202019204th Waterford—1898—4th Wexford—194519184th Wicklow———4th Westmeath20222004——2nd
Draws Group stage seeding Numbers in brackets indicate ranking in the 2025 NFL.
Pot 1 Offaly Kildare Westmeath Fermanagh
Pot 2 Sligo Laois Limerick Wexford
Pot 3 Antrim Leitrim Wicklow Carlow
Pot 4 Tipperary Longford Waterford London
New York enter the Tailteann Cup at the preliminary quarter-final stage.
Knockout stage seeding The preliminary quarter-final draw took place on 1 June 2025. The quarter-final draw is on 9 June. The semi-final draw is on 16 June.
Seeded into quarter-finals Fermanagh Kildare Limerick Wicklow
Unseeded in quarter-finals Offaly Sligo Westmeath Wexford
Seeded into preliminary quarter-finals Offaly Sligo Westmeath Wexford
Unseeded in preliminary quarter-finals Antrim Carlow Laois New York
Group stage
Group 1
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Group 2
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Group 3
Group 4
Ranking of third-placed teams
Knockout stage
Bracket
Preliminary quarter-finals
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Stadia and locations
Statistics
Scoring events
In Westmeath's game against Antrim, Luke Loughlin nearly broke Cillian O'Connor's record for the highest individual score in a championship match.
Widest winning margin: 25 points
Most goals in a match: 7 (Wexford v Antrim)
Most points in a match: 47
Most goals by one team in a match: 5 (Wexford)
Most points by one team in a match: 36 Highest aggregate score: 58 points (Wexford v Limerick) Lowest aggregate score: 22 points (Kildare v Fermanagh)
Miscellaneous None of the four semi-finalists had ever reached the Tailteann Cup semi-finals before.
See also
2025 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (Tier 1) 2025 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship (Tier 3)
References