The 1970–71 National Football League was the 40th staging of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), an annual

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament for the

Gaelic Athletic Association county A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has ...

teams of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Kerry beat Mayo in the final.

Format

1970-71 saw the introduction of a new format.

Divisions

* Division One: 16 teams. Split into two groups of 8. * Division Two: 16 teams. Split into two groups of 8.

Round-robin format

Each team played every other team in its division (or group where the division is split) once, either home or away.

Points awarded

2 points were awarded for a win and 1 for a draw.

Titles

* Teams in Division One competed for the

title. * Teams in Division Two competed for the

Division Two title.

Knockout stage structure

In the semi-Finals, the match-ups were as follows: * Quarter-final 1: First-placed team in Division One (A) v Second-placed team in Division One (B) * Quarter-final 2: Second-placed team in Division One (A) v First-placed team in Division One (B) The final match-up is: Winner Semi-final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2.

Separation of teams on equal points

In the event that teams finish on equal points, then a play-off will be used to determine group placings if necessary, i.e. where to decide relegation places or quarter-finalists.

Format

Divisions

Round-robin format

Points awarded

Titles

Knockout stage structure

Separation of teams on equal points

Group stage

Division One

Results

=Division One (A) play-offs

=Division One (B) play-offs

Tables

=Group A

Division two

Tables

=Group A

=Group B

Knockout stage

Division One

Division two

References