Video evidence rules will be ‘tidied up’

THE rule governing the use of video evidence, under which Tyrone defender Ryan McMenamin won an 11th-hour reprieve to play in tomorrow’s All-Ireland football quarter-final, needs to be amended, said GAA president Sean Kelly yesterday.

He was responding to the ruling of the newly established Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) which found in favour of McMenamin after a lengthy hearing on Wednesday night.

Tyrone had originally appealed the decision to suspend him for four weeks for an incident in the Ulster final replay for which the referee issued him with a yellow card.

Manager Micky Harte said he was ‘very happy’ that the rule had been applied the way they felt it should have been initially when the Central Disciplinary Committee charged him after viewing a video of the incident and gave him a month’s suspension.

McMenamin thus missed Tyrone’s game against Monaghan last Saturday, following a first appeal to the Central Appeals Committee and a preliminary hearing undertaken by the DRA.

Harte said he always believed in the correctness of their stance. It was made on the basis that the CDC was not empowered to overturn a decision of the referee.

“People on the CDC and others felt differently. I think it was good that the DRA looked at it objectively and determined that the referee ‘had’ acted within the rules and that our player had been dealt with within the rules.’’

Harte reckoned it was a definite boost to now have all their best players available, although he said Tyrone could not think it would win them the match.

“If we don’t win, then this ‘victory’ won’t mean anything. It’s a victory on the field that will be the important one,’’ he said.

The DRA found that while there was no error in the CDC procedures, there was a problem with the relevant rule.

While the previous Games Administration Committee adopted a policy of not interfering with decisions of referees, the new CDC ‘inherited’ a different policy.

They charged players under the rule which entitled them to use video evidence to investigate incidents and - crucially - under a Central Council ruling of 2002.

This specified that where video evidence showed that a player deserved a red card rather than a yellow card, he could be charged with the more serious offence.

Yesterday, the CDC Chairman Con Hogan stressed that his committee had not changed policy. “It wasn’t as if we were making it up as we went along,’’ he commented.

After they suspended the player, he appealed to the Central Appeals Committee who found that the CDC did not misapply the rules.

But, on examination of the rules, the DRA found that in relation to the Central Council ruling of 2002, a recommendation by the then president (Sean McCague) that a mechanism needed to be put in place to give effect to that decision, had not been undertaken.

A ‘Disciplinary Rules’ committee was put in place and they laid out procedures for the use of video evidence. However, they did not refer back to the Central Council decision.

That’s where the DRA discovered an anomaly in the rules and, accordingly, found in favour of McMenamin.

Sean Kelly accepts that the relevant rules will have to be ‘tidied up,’ commenting that any loophole would need to be addressed.

“We put a whole new system in place this year and there were bound to be teething problems.

“I mentioned three years ago that the rule book is out of date and needed to be modernised and that judgement has been vindicated.’’

Mr. Kelly said they would seek legal advice, but he expected that they would have to wait until next year’s Congress to do so.

Recently, Con Hogan addressed a meeting of national referees where he pointed out that the CDC policy was to exonerate players where video evidence warranted it.

DRA freedom reflected in ruling

THE Disputes Resolution Authority ruled that a referee’s decision cannot be overturned to impose a heavier penalty on a player. This is exactly what the Central Disciplinary Committee did in relation to Ryan McMenamin.

Significantly, however, DRA have informed the Central Disciplinary Committee that under present mechanisms they still retain the right to charge a player with an incident ‘not dealt with’ by the referee during a game.

And, players can continue to ask for video evidence to be used to overturn a referee’s decision and exonerate them.

GAA President Sean Kelly commented that the decision of the DRA showed that they were totally independent of the association.

“Basically, they deal with matters as a court would deal with them, without having the same adverse publicity or the same cost."