Longford GAA chiefs fuming as Donegal clash postponed

LONGFORD GAA bosses are unhappy with the decision of the Games Administration Committee (GAC) to postpone Sunday’s Allianz Division 2A NFL game against Donegal.

County secretary Seamus Quinn said: “We want the game to go ahead this weekend in Pearse Park where it was originally fixed for. Postponing it is only going to cause problems for us down the line with our own domestic programme.

“If we make progress in the Leinster Under-21 football championship, which I expect we will, postponing the senior league game will cause problems for us because of the big number of senior players involved.

“Our preference was to have the game played at home on Sunday, but there is nothing we can do now but accept the decision made.”

A request for a postponement from Donegal was deemed fair by the GAC in Croke Park, in order to allow time to resolve the impasse.

Longford were adamant the game should have been played in Pearse Park after they had been notified to that effect at the start of the year. But when notification of the fixture was sent out last week, they discovered they faced a 220-mile round trip to the Donegal venue.

“We haven’t been doing well with home fixtures over the past few years and for the last two league campaigns, we’ve had four away matches and we believe we are due four home matches this year.

“The confusion about the venue is not good enough. It should have been easy to draw up the fixture list giving counties an even spread of home and away games over a two-year period.

“When a county can get only two home games in an eight-team group, there is something wrong with the planning. Anyone can make a mistake but this should never have happened. To my knowledge this is the first time a National League game has had to be postponed over a dispute regarding the venue.”

The GAC has requested both counties to attend a GAC meeting at the earliest possible opportunity to allow the matter to be discussed and a satisfactory solution found. Longford are due to play Carlow tomorrow in the Leinster U-21 football championship with 10 senior panellists involved.