The 2026 Down Intermediate Football Championship is the 38th official edition of Down GAA's secondary Gaelic football tournament for intermediate clubs in County Down. 16 teams compete, with the winning team representing Down in the Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship. The tournament operated a double elimination format for the opening two rounds of the championship, with the winners and early round losers rejoining at the quarter final stage.
Saval won the 2025 edition, and as per competition rules, did not defend their title as they qualified to play in the Senior Championship.
Participating teams The following teams took part in the 2026 edition of the Down Intermediate Football Championship.
Division Two Division Three Division Four An Riocht Final Atticall Round 2B Ardglass Round 2B Annaclone Semi Final Darragh Cross Round 3 Ballymartin Round 2B Clann na Banna Quarter Final Dromara Round 3 Tullylish Round 3 Longstone Semi Final Liatroim Fontenoys Quarter Final Rostrevor Final Newry Shamrocks Quarter Final St John Bosco Round 2B St Johns Quarter Final Teconnaught Round 3
Bold denotes a team still active in the competition
Round 1 The 16 participating teams were placed into an open draw. The winning teams advance to Round 2A, while losing sides proceed to Round 2B.
Round 2 Round 2A Round 2A will feature the eight winning teams from Round 1, with an open draw to determine the fixtures. The winning teams progress directly to the quarter-finals, with the losing teams proceeding to Round 3.
Round 2B Round 2B sees the eight losing teams from Round 1 compete for a place in Round 3. The losing teams from this round will be eliminated from the competition.
Relegation Semi-Finals The 4 losers of Round 2B play each other in the Relegation Semi-Finals. The 2 winners will secure their Intermediate status for 2027, while the 2 losers will face-off in the Relegation Final.
Relegation Final The winner of the Relegation Final will maintain their Intermediate status into 2027, while the loser will be relegated to the 2027 Down J.F.C.
St John Bosco relegated to 2027 Down Junior Football Championship
Round 3 Round 3 is a supplementary round for teams to have a second chance at reaching the quarter-finals. This round features teams that have lost once so far in this year's competition, either winning in Round 1 and losing in Round 2A, or losing in Round 1 but winning their Round 2B fixture. The losing teams in this round are eliminated from this year's competition.
This round is seeded, meaning that in each fixture a Round 2A losing team will face a Round 2B winning team.
Quarter-finals The quarter-finals see the two brackets rejoin, with the earlier Round 2A winners facing a Round 3 winner for a semi-final spot.
Semi-finals The semi-finals will see the four winning sides face off for a place in this year's final. This round is an open draw from the four quarter-final winners.
Final The final was played between the two semi-final winning teams, and took place at Páirc Esler, Newry.
References
External links Down GAA