This afternoon in Downing Stadium, New York, (8.30 BST, live on Network 2) the Church & General National Football League gets under way with the meeting of Cavan and Kerry in a match which commemorates the 1947 Polo Grounds All-Ireland final.

The event has been every bit as serendipitous as its historical predecessor which despite firm opposition and formidable logistical problems, became the only All-Ireland to be staged outside the country.

Only six months ago, today's football's six major trophies will be on display over the weekend.

Kerry provide the bulk of the silverware as holders of the League title, recently-crowned All-Ireland - and Munster - champions but Cavan's achievement in winning their first Ulster title in 28 years was more unexpected.

Estimates of the crowds that have travelled to New York for the occasion vary between 2,000 and 4,000 and a good attendance is expected at the Randall's Island venue, according to Patricia Sheridan PRO of the organising committee and late of Ballyjamesduff. "We are expecting 12,000 to attend. Seven thousand tickets have been pre-sold but we think we'll make up the extra numbers."

Downing Stadium is an impressive and historic venue. Owned by the New York Parks and Recreation Department, it has a storied past as an athletics ground although its big events in recent times have been more cultural, featuring ethnic festivals including the Guinness Fleadh.

Yesterday in the sunshine, it looked splendid. An amphitheatre with a 30,000 capacity, it was pressed into service when the organising committee and the GAA realised that Gaelic Park, the traditional Gaelic games venue in the city, would not be big enough to hold the expected crowd.

Built in 1936 for the US Olympic trials of that year, it was the track on which Jesse Owens qualified for the Berlin Games at which he won his record four gold medals.

Coincidentally, that year's World Labour Carnival, devised as an alternative to the fascist triumphalism of the Nazi-staged Olympics, was also held at the ground. Carl Lewis, who emulated Owens's achievement, also qualified for the Olympics here in 1992.

Hard at work on the ground was Ballinamore man Peter Flynn who is groundsman at the renowned Shea Stadium - home of the New York Mets baseball team and until 1983 of the Jets footballers - where he has worked since 1962. Thirty five years have done little to modulate his native Leitrim accent.

At one stage in the 1960s he transported the Beatles after their famous but inaudible Shea Stadium concert. "Yeah, I drove them from the stage to an armoured truck the two times they played there. There was so much screaming you couldn't hear anything. I was sitting underneath the stage and they could have been singing anything. All you could hear was 55,000 kids screaming."

"This was a disaster," he says nodding around him at the meticulously laid turf of Downing Stadium. "It was all rocks and dust. We had to put fabric over the running track and because of the fall, level it off with topsoil."

Great rolls of turf which can be rented from one of two sod farms in the state were then manoeuvred into place. "They're four feet wide and 50 feet long," says Flynn. "We lifted them hydraulically and raked them into position and then rolled it."

This $60,000 wig met with the approval of Cavan players who gathered around midday to walk the pitch before heading off for a training spin elsewhere. Wing forward Peter Reilly was happy. "It's a good surface although it's obviously just laid and a nice ground."

He made the point that Cavan haven't had any organised training since losing the All-Ireland semi-final to Kerry last August since when their manager Martin McHugh has stepped down.

"We haven't had the chance to train together. There's been club championships and not having a manager has made it hard for us but there won't be anything between the teams as regards fitness because Kerry haven't been working for the last month either."

Reilly also dismissed the view that Kerry, as All-Ireland champions, were taking a more carefree approach to today's match (according to one rumour, the minimalist Kerry hope is that no-one staggers in the pre-match parade).

"I'd be surprised if they're not serious about it," said Reilly. "The defeat in 1947 still rankles with Kerry and should motivate them for this."

Definitely out of the Kerry team is Dara O Cinneide who damaged shoulder ligaments in a recent club match.

Meanwhile, at a lunch in the Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel yesterday earlier reports that Eircell will be the new sponsors of the All Stars scheme were confirmed. This year's awards will be presented on December 5th and will be adjudicated by journalists. The scheme displaces the Powerscreen Players' All Stars of the past two years.

Stephen Brewer, chief executive of Eircell, said the company was particularly happy to be able to embark on a sponsorship with the GAA as there was so much competition in the area. Joe McDonagh, the first president of the GAA to have won an All Star (1975), thanked Brewer and looked forward to the new scheme.

It will also involve monthly awards and the continuation of the Players' Player of the Year in both hurling and football. There were also indications that Eircell will revive the All Stars tours to North America which died out in the early 1990s after a couple of visits to the Skydome in Toronto.

The sponsorship will be initially for a three-year period.