Galway's Football Board executive is set on a collision course with the Connacht Council, which may cost All-Ireland club champions Corofin their title because of a fixtures dispute.

The board confirmed last night that Corofin are to play Carraroe in the Galway county final this Sunday but the Connacht Council are determined that their club championship first-round match between the Galway representatives and Mayo champions Ballina will go ahead on the same day and have turned down requests for a postponement.

The only way in which the provincial match could have gone ahead is if the county final were played on Saturday and the winners played Ballina 24 hours later or if the county board agreed to nominate representatives and postpone the county final.

Neither alternative is viewed favourably in Galway. A Saturday county final was last night ruled out "for practical reasons".

The option is felt to be unsatisfactory as it would affect the attendance and atmosphere at what should be a special occasion, given the county's historic All-Ireland success in September. Nor does either club want to represent the county unless they have won the county title, regardless of when the county final is held.

John Prenty, the secretary of the Connacht Council, says that Galway have already been granted an extension for this provincial fixture and that it must now take place.

"We met a number of times on this in Connacht. On the 15th October the council received a request from Galway for an extension of the provincial club championship. At that time we extended the date from the 25th October to the 8th November.

"Since then we had a request on the 23rd October for further postponement which was not agreed and a further request on 28th October which was also turned down. Ballina are now scheduled to play the Galway representatives this Sunday in Ballina.

"We've met three times on it and given one two-week extension. The problems that remain will have to be dealt with by the Galway County Board."

Galway county secretary Bernie O'Connor stands over the county's request for a postponement and says that forcing the nomination of a team for the Connacht championship would have been unfair.

"Connacht Council don't need their team at the All-Ireland stage until after Christmas. There's plenty of time before. If we were forced to nominate, we'd be in a difficult position. Carraroe are a small rural club from a remote village in Connemara. They won their first title two years ago and they're supposed to be playing Corofin on Sunday.

"But Corofin are All-Ireland champions. How could we nominate anyone other than Corofin and not give them a chance of defending their title?"

The whole controversy has been exacerbated by the fact that the Galway County Board allowed two teams, Tuam Stars and Dunmore McHales, to be readmitted to the championship after they had failed to fulfil fixtures. In doing so, the county board had over-ruled its own Football Board which had thrown out both clubs.

Dunmore refused to play because their star player Michael Donnellan had been selected for the International Rules series with Australia and was due to play for Ireland the day after the club fixture was scheduled.

"We let them back in on rule," says O'Connor. "We didn't want to put too much pressure on a county player who had had a long championship and had earned the honour of playing for his country. We felt it would be high-handed to fire them out and although there's no official rule, we like every game to be finished on the field and only in extraordinary circumstances would we fire out teams."

One possible solution to the impasse would be to stage the fixture on Saturday week but both Galway and Mayo have National League fixtures the following day.

Meanwhile, the draw for next year's football and hurling championships will be made on Sunday week (November 15th) in the RTE studios in Montrose. This is later than the usual October bank holiday date and proceedings will be broadcast that night.

It was formally decided at last weekend's special congress in Rosslare that the annual congress in 2000 will be held in Galway. The congress will be the last of current GAA president Joe McDonagh's three-year term of office.