Congress: end pitch invasions or risk fatalities

THE GAA leadership resorted to a form of shock treatment at the opening session of annual Congress in Newcastle, Co. Down last night with the showing of a video highlighting the dangers of pitch invasions to launch a campaign aimed at stamping out the practice and avoiding a Heysel Stadium or Hillsborough-type tragedy.

The video carried a stark warning from English pitch safety expert Paul Scott that there was very little “between getting away with it and a disaster”.

Not unexpectedly, delegates responded overwhelmingly to President Christy Cooney’s plea for a ringing endorsement of the policy being pursued. “We want to educate, not enforce,’’ he commented, while conceding that as a last resort they would look for Government legislation to outlaw the practice.

The showing of the video was preceded by a strong presentation from ex-Tipp chairman Con Hogan, a GAA trustee and chair of a special sub-committee set up by Cooney to examine the issue.

He said he wanted to address delegates on what could be “a matter of life and death”.

“I want to visualise a future Congress, maybe next year’s, when we will begin by standing for a minute’s silence in memory of people who died at one of our major games because we did not exercise due care and proper crowd control.

“I want you to consider a future where the name of Croke Park — or Thurles, or Clones or some other GAA stadium — is linked forever with Ibrox and Heysel and Hillsborough, not as an iconic sports venue, but as a place where people died, and died because we did not exercise proper crowd control’’

All the available advice from agencies such as international sports bodies, the gardaí, health and safety officers warned of the dangers of pitch invasions.

Commenting that some of them spoke “from bitter and tragic experience,” Hogan added: “They cannot all be wrong and the 96 people who died at Hillsborough, the 66 who died at Ibrox and the 39 who died at Hysel, are proof.”

Croke Park chief steward Bill Barry commented that all that was needed for a few people to come on the field and they were into “crushing and potential deaths”.

Remarking that parents regularly abandoned children in their rush to get on the field, a safety steward revealed that two eight-year olds went missing after last year’s hurling final and an 11-year-old had a similar experience at the football final.

Resuming his address after the video, Hogan said that the message was stark and clear — there is a real risk of injury or fatality in a GAA grounds. “It’s a risk that we as responsible leaders cannot continue to take,’’ he said.

Adding that while they Association was taking a voluntary approach to end pitch invasions, he warned that they would not hesitate to escalate their initiative in the event of getting a negative response.

Taking up the theme, Christy Cooney said if necessary they would work with Government to introduce legislation to ban the practice.