Ladies football chiefs vote on ‘smoking ban’

DELEGATES attending this weekend’s Ladies Football Congress in Newry will vote on a novel proposal to impose a smoking ban on team officials and managements ‘inside pitch boundaries.’ If accepted, it will be incorporated into the rules of the Association (Cumann Peil na mBan).

It’s not known if the motion has been tabled by an individual county or whether it came from the executive, with officials pointing out that this information is not normally disclosed to the media.

The same applies to the origin of another — match related — proposal to amend an existing rule (424). It seeks to give players in all grades the option of taking 45 metre kicks from the hand. Under the existing rule, only players up to and including U-14 level are allowed to do so. A new President will take over, after Geraldine Giles held office for the last six years (gaining the approval of the 2006 Congress to serve a second term).