The All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship was created in 1964 in response to a Congress motion put forward by the
Kerry County Board. Since then the competition has grown in importance and profile. The championship is run on an inter-county
provincial basis with the winners from
Munster,
Leinster,
Ulster and
Connacht playing off against each other in two semi-finals.
Cork are the most successful team in the history of the Under-21 Championship. Two teams have achieved three-in-a-rows; Kerry from 1975 to 1977 and Cork from 1984 to 1986. The coveted treble of winning the
senior, under-21, and
minor titles in the same year has been achieved on just one occasion, by
Kerry in 1975. Because teams will only play together for at most, about two or three years, unlike the senior competition, it is unusual that one county will dominate for periods any longer than this. It is usually considered the mark of a player to play for both a county's Under-21 and Senior team at the same time. Many players have achieved this, although one particular example would be
Frank McGuigan, who, in 1973, represented
Tyrone in the Ulster Finals of the Minors, Seniors and Under-21s. ==Roll of Honour==