The 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 126th edition of the GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament, played between 31 counties of Ireland (excluding Kilkenny who only take part in the hurling championship), London and New York.

[1] The 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final took place at Croke Park on 23 September 2012, with Donegal emerging victorious.

Having reclaimed the Ulster Senior Football Championship with wins over Cavan, Derry, Tyrone and Down, they met and bet Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-final, in what was widely considered the game of the Championship.

[2] They then overcame Cork in the semi-final and Mayo in the final in Jim McGuinness's second season in charge, allowing team captain Michael Murphy to hold the Sam Maguire Cup aloft.

Ahead of the 2012 Championship, three referees joined the panel: Conor Lane of Banteer, Martin Higgins of Fermanagh and Barry Cassidy of Derry.

The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship of 2012 was run on a provincial basis as usual.

It was a knockout tournament with pairings drawn at random in the respective provinces – there was no seeds.

The qualifiers gave teams defeated in the provincial championships another chance at winning the All-Ireland title.

Round 1 (8 matches): the sixteen teams who failed to reach a provincial semi-final entered the qualifiers at this stage (New York do not compete).

Round 2 (8 matches): the eight teams who failed to progress from their provincial semi-finals entered the qualifiers at this stage.

Round 4 (4 matches): the four teams who lost their provincial finals entered the qualifiers at this stage.

Quarter-finals: (4 matches) the four teams from round 4 of the qualifiers were paired against the four provincial winners.

This draw contained all the teams who had been knocked out of their provincial competitions prior to the semi-final stage, apart from New York.

[4][5] It was broadcast live on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland for the first time.