Austin Gleeson may benefit from August clemency

In 2011, for the second year in a row, former inter-county referee and Irish Examiner columnist John Bannon put forward a motion to GAA Congress via his club Legan Sarsfields to take referees out of the process of issuing proposed retrospective suspensions, writes John Fogarty.

Two years previous, while in charge of the Cork-Tyrone All-Ireland semi-final, Bannon had chosen not to take the advice of the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) and review his decision to yellow card Cork’s John Miskella when there was pressure on him to issue a red, meaning the defender would have missed the All-Ireland final.

“It was easy for me to make that decision,” Bannon later said. “I was placed with the responsibility of deciding whether a player can play in an All-Ireland final or not. There is a human element to this. I was retiring from refereeing anyway, so I chose not to clear the way for an upgrade.”