Galway hurling chief ‘disgusted’ by final venue ruling

GALWAY hurling board chiefs and high ranking GAA officials are on a collision course over the venue for Saturday’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland U21HC final.

GAA President Christy Cooney yesterday insisted that the tie – between Galway and Tipperary – will be played at Semple Stadium despite repeated requests from the Tribesmen for a neutral venue.

Cooney said the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) remained steadfast in their decision to play the game in Thurles.

But Galway hurling board secretary John Fahey last night said he was ‘disgusted’ by the development ahead of an emergency meeting of officials in the county.

Fahey said: “We were promised at a meeting in Athlone on Friday that the CCCC would revisit the situation over the weekend. But were all the members summoned to a meeting and were all members given an opportunity to give their views on it?

“If they did so fair enough, but if this was done in an ad-hoc manner, that is not right.

“When the CCCC originally chose Thurles as the venue last week, they did so accepting that there was a direction from management figures in the GAA to play the game in Semple Stadium. But when we met with Páraic Duffy, we were told that there had been no influence made to the CCCC about the venue. As a result we were promised that if we wrote a letter to the CCCC they would revisit the situation. We did that, yet we still haven’t received even an acknowledgement.

“I’m disgusted. There is no precedent of a team having home advantage for an All-Ireland final and you have to ask is this in anyway fair?”

Fahey admitted he was unsure whether any other options were available to explore in a bid to reverse the decision.

“We just don’t know yet what we’re going to do. We have to think of our players, our management and our supporters in all of this.

“We have a great relationship with Tipperary county board officials and have no problem with Thurles as a pitch.

“But in these circumstances, it’s not fair.”

Earlier in the day, Cooney insisted that he saw nothing wrong with the decision.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. We’re likely to play our U21 hurling finals in Thurles for the foreseeable future. Counties are going to have to recognise that and it’s going to happen. Páraic Duffy had the courtesy to meet the Galway board on Friday, I wasn’t able to.”

He explained the position of the CCCC, their role and responsibilities.

“He also explained we don’t dictate to CCCC in any circumstances where games should be played.

“That’s their job, that’s why I appointed Seamus Woods and his committee to do a job. I’m very happy with Thurles as a venue. I mean do the Dubs then have an unfair advantage playing in Croke Park?”