Moving back the date of this season's NFL Division Two final will be one of the options on the table when the GAA's Central Competitions Committee meets this afternoon to address the problem created by the postponement of Sunday's Armagh-Dublin Division Two fixture in Crossmaglen.

"We have very little room for manoeuvre," said CCCC chair Jimmy Dunne, "and we have to consider every option, including the final of the football league."

The situation arises because there are misgivings about the idea of re-fixing the Armagh v Dublin for tomorrow week in Crossmaglen with an evening throw-in, as was initially agreed between the counties after the late calling off of Sunday's fixture.

"There's no guarantee that the match will be played midweek," said Dunne. "We have to look at all the issues involved."

There has been severe criticism of the circumstances surrounding the weekend's postponement. The match wasn't called off until 1.50pm, although referee Derek Fahy had declared the pitch unplayable at just after one o'clock and the numbers in attendance were refused a refund of their admission costs.

"When the decision was made to postpone the game there was a meeting between both managers and county officials and the question of a new date discussed," said Dublin county board chief executive John Costello. "We're aware that the GAA like to stage the final series of matches at the same time on the same day and there was acceptance the only alternative was a midweek fixture."

Should the CCCC decide against green-lighting the Wednesday fixture, which would be all but impossible for a sizeable contingent of Dublin supporters to attend, the problem is that there isn't another free weekend for the match to be refixed with the final two rounds of the NFL due to be played in the next two weeks.

The next free football Sunday is on April 20th, but given the preference to stage all the concluding matches on the same day, holding over what is likely to be a significant Division Two fixture would not be in keeping with CCCC policy.

Reports that admission to the refixed match in Crossmaglen would be free were contradicted by Dunne, who said that the Armagh county board hadn't the authority to make such a concession, which would have to be made by the finance committee in Croke Park.

He also said that in future the GAA might have to look at the possibility of withdrawing home advantage from counties which didn't have the facility to stage matches at alternative venues in such circumstances as have arisen on a number of occasions in this season's NFL.

"If I'm in Arklow," he said, "and the pitch isn't playable but the one a few miles away in Gorey is, then we may have to look at moving fixtures to another county. People will have to accept that with the weather at this time of the year getting wetter and the fixtures calendar so tight, all options have to be looked at.

"We can't have patrons travelling 100 miles and having to go home again if there's a pitch reasonably nearby that's available."

This fixture difficulty also occurs in Division Three where last weekend's postponement of the Down v Limerick match, scheduled for Newry leaves another fixture to be arranged over the same timescale as Armagh v Dublin.

Given the distance involved, it's unlikely that Limerick would be asked to travel midweek to Newry - particularly as the county has already suffered two late postponements at Ulster venues in the past 12 months.

The GAA issued an apology for what happened in Crossmaglen, saying that "it understood the frustration caused to Dublin and Armagh supporters due to the enforced postponement of yesterday's Allianz National Football League game in Crossmaglen.

"The pitch was considered playable up to noon. The pitch remained playable subsequent to this, but following continuous rain and hail from noon the referee decided that the pitch was unplayable at approximately 1.30pm. His decision was on health and safety grounds and he conveyed this to the event organisers."

The statement went on to "fully accept the annoyance and inconvenience experienced by supporters but states that in the circumstances there is no more that it (the GAA) could meaningfully do."