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DUBLIN GAA has suspended Dessie Farrell as its soccer manager for 12 weeks, following an internal investigation into breach of Covid-19 lockdown rules and GAA’s training ban that occurred yesterday morning on the grounds. from the Innisfails GAA club in Clongriffin.
The statement, posted on the county board’s website and attributed to the Dublin management committee, insists that they “acknowledge that following an investigation this afternoon, there was a violation of Covid-19 guidelines yesterday morning.
“The County Management Committee has suspended Dublin Soccer Manager Dessie Farrell for 12 weeks with immediate effect.
“Dublin’s top management and football players acknowledge that this is a serious error of judgment and fully apologize for their actions.”
The 12-week suspension takes effect immediately and runs through June 24.
Although there are no confirmed dates yet for this year’s inter-county match schedule, Farrell will now likely miss the entire Dublin League campaign and would return in time for the Dublin Leinster quarter-finals based on current projections.
There is no indication yet whether Croke Park will accept Dublin’s censure or proceed with its own case, although a swift resolution will naturally be attractive.
In January, the County Mayo board executive made the decision to suspend three members of its own soccer management team for three months each for unauthorized access to last year’s Ireland final at Croke Park.
The Croke Park operations team was not aware of the unauthorized presence of the three, who were passengers in the team’s van, and that the first thing someone at GAA learned of the matter was through the county board of May.
In that case, Croke Park was satisfied that Mayo had issued and enforced appropriate bans.
Photographs taken by the Irish Independent clearly show members of the Dublin panel participating in a group session, currently prohibited by the government and Croke Park rules.
The session began just 12 hours after Croke Park issued a circular to all clubs and counties, warning that any breach of the current ban on group training could put GAA’s overall plans for a comeback “in grave jeopardy.”
This followed the government’s announcement earlier on Tuesday that inter-county high-level panels will now be able to resume training starting April 19, with an eye toward starting the Allianz and launch soccer leagues in May.
Already this year, two county football directors; Ronan McCarthy of Cork and Paddy Tally of Down, were suspended by Croke Park under the blanket sanction “misconduct deemed to have discredited the Association” after their teams were found to have violated GAA’s ban on group meetings. .
McCarthy was suspended for 12 weeks after some members of the Cork soccer panel participated in what was explained as a team-building session on Youghal beach.
McCarthy’s punishment, from the date of his CHC hearing on February 18, will not expire until May 13, just in time for the likely mid-May start of a truncated NFL campaign.
Down’s boss, Tally, was suspended for eight weeks due to a gathering of “about 18 players,” reportedly to receive their individual training programs, on the Abbey CBS grounds in Newry in January.
Tally also faced a 12-week suspension following the GAA Management Committee’s investigation, although the GAA Central Hearing Committee later reduced it to eight weeks.
Online editors
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