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Cork women’s soccer manager Ephie Fitzgerald criticized the LGFA’s decision to move Sunday’s Cork-Galway All-Ireland semi-final to Parnell Park.
Fitzgerald described as “ridiculous”, “absolutely ridiculous” and “pathetic” the LGFA’s decision to fix the game for Dublin’s Parnell Park after the starting venue for the semifinal, LIT Gaelic Grounds, was unavailable.
The game, which has a throw-in at 1.30pm, was confirmed for LIT Gaelic Grounds on November 16, but it was announced on Monday that the semifinal had been moved to Parnell Park.
When the LGFA booked the Limerick venue in the middle of last month, the Limerick County Board told them that in the event that Limerick made it to the all-Ireland pitching final, John Kiely’s panel would take precedence over the football match women if it were a case of Limerick pitchers requiring the use of LIT Gaelic Grounds for a training session on Sunday 6 December.
Limerick secured their place in the final in Ireland last Sunday, and their final preparations include a meeting at the Ennis Road venue this Sunday.
The exact time of Limerick’s training session is unclear, but the understood to overlap with the 1.30pm start for the women’s soccer game.
A Limerick County board official said that even if the hurling session concluded before 1.30pm, facilitating the women’s game would not have been straightforward given the requirement for a deep cleaning of the stadium before it could be reopened to players from Cork and Galway.
The LGFA explored Semple Stadium, Thurles as an alternative, but problems also arose there.
A Tipperary County Board official said “administration would have been a problem, but we didn’t close the door.”
Given the need for an illuminated field, several other venues in the region were not suitable candidates to host the match between the defeated 2019 and 2018 Ireland finalists.
The Beara-based Cork players face a nearly 10-hour drive to and from the game, and Fitzgerald said the choice of Parnell Park showed “a total disrespect” for the players from both counties.
The manager confirmed that Cork will stay overnight on Saturday.
“We are talking about two teams from Connacht and Munster that have to go play in a Leinster stadium on the other side of the country. It’s unbelievable, “Fitzgerald said.
“Would this happen in the men’s game? Not in a million years.
“It would not be allowed that an all-Ireland semi-final could not be organized correctly and that six days before the match, in the middle of a pandemic, we were told that we have to go to Dublin where the Covid numbers have been the highest, number one, number two, the amount of travel involved and number three, the amount of interaction that will take place during those 36 hours, or whatever, between the group of 40. -Weird people.
“All we wanted to do was be able to sit in our cars, ride to the game, play games, do our best and go home and make sure everyone is safe. That is not granted to us now. It is totally unsatisfactory.
“Coming from the male side of the game, I realize how far the female game is in terms of expenses and things like that, but at the same time, everyone deserves respect and women don’t get the respect they deserve here. There is a total lack of respect. It is not acceptable that this is allowed to happen. “
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