Unanimous ‘yes’ from North America

THE North American County Board will attend this weekend’s GAA Congress in Dublin armed with eight votes in support of the suspension of Rule 42.

The NACB, is the governing body for Gaelic Games in all 50 states of the United States excluding the New York City metropolitan area and conducted an online poll of its 111 adult and 12 youth clubs in order to arrive at a voting mandate for the controversial motion to allow soccer and rugby into Croke Park.

Before leaving the US for Dublin, NACB vice-chairman Michael Treacy said voting had been: “Overwhelmingly in favour of a ‘yes’ vote.

“We received votes from around two-thirds of our clubs and more than 90% of those votes were in favour of the motion,” Treacy said.

The North American vote is in direct contrast to the neighbouring New York Board’s mandate to vote ‘no’, arrived at last week thanks to a six to one majority against the use of Croke Park for soccer and rugby internationals.

“I had expected it to be a toss-up,” Treacy added, “but all our eight votes at Congress will be ‘yes’.”