Officials meet again as intervention put to test

THE Fermanagh County Board’s management committee meet for a second time in three days tonight as the GAA and GPA hope their intervention can help resolve the impasse involving 10 footballers.

In a press release yesterday, the GAA and GPA confirmed that following Monday night’s meeting the management committee had scheduled to convene again to “address relevant matters concerning the county’s senior football team”.

Fermanagh officials had discussed the clear-the-air talks held last Thursday by the GAA and GPA between county committee members and a number of players who have quit John O’Neill’s panel.

O’Neill is having to make do without several key players such as the Sherry brothers, James and Peter, Tommy McElroy, Niall Bogue, Mark Little and Shane Lyons.

The disaffected footballers have left in protest over a number of issues, including O’Neill’s management style.

The outcome of the arbitration is now as much a test for the GAA and GPA’s freshly-devised disputes resolution procedure as it is for the working relations between the major stakeholders in Fermanagh football.

As expected, Fermanagh coasted to a facile Division 4 win over Kilkenny in Jenkinstown last weekend. However, their 16-point victory wasn’t enough to push them up from seventh in the group, remaining just above the Cats and London.

Fermanagh host Clare in Enniskillen’s Brewster Park this Sunday and conclude their league campaign at home to London. Their opening Ulster SFC game is against Derry in Celtic Park in seven weeks’ time.