McEneaney furious with forfeiture decision

Eamonn McEneaney accused GAA chiefs of misapplying the rules after Monaghan were ordered to forfeit home advantage for the Allianz FL Division 2 clash with Louth on Sunday week, March 11.

Furious McEneaney broke his silence after the GAA’s Central Appeals Committee (CAC) upheld the Central Hearings Committee’s (CHC) decision to send Monaghan to Drogheda for the fixture with his former charges. Last night, McEneaney and team captain Darren Hughes met with county board officials to decide on the next course of action — with an appeal to the independent Disputes Resolution Authority understood to be a possibility.

In the GAA’s Official Guide, there is no specific rule stating a county can lose home advantage for disciplinary reasons but a Croke Park spokesman explained last night: “The CHC was perfectly entitled to hand down the sanction that it did. That’s the risk that the units run when they seek a hearing after the CHC makes a recommendation, be that a suspension or fine. Even though it [forfeiture of home advantage] is not referenced in rule, no figures for fines are mentioned either. It doesn’t work like that — it’s down to the discretion of the relevant committee.”

But that explanation is not sitting well with McEneaney.

“It’s not mentioned in the Official Guide, from 7.4-7.9 and the defined forms of penalty. Forfeiting home advantage is not in that.

“They have introduced something that has not had a precedent in the GAA for county teams. The national league has its own balance with a number of games at home and away. That natural balance has seriously changed in our regard, with two at home and five away.

“That breaches natural justice and fair play. In terms of changing a venue for an inter-county fixture, as far as I was aware, the only people with the remit to do that are Central Council or CCCC.”

And McEneaney believes the GAA’s decision has potential legal implications with supporters already having purchased season tickets for home league games.

“If you buy the season ticket, you buy it on the basis of three home and four away matches, not two at home and five away. To me, that’s a legal contract and I would say that it has legal implications.

“This was introduced as a brand new thing and at the start of the league, if the counties knew that this was going to be the situation if there were unsavoury incidents, you were going in with your eyes wide open. But there’s no precedent here with inter-county football and I think it’s wrong.

“And I would feel that people made comments in the papers in the last few weeks in positions of authority about the whole case before it was actually finished.

“We kept our counsel and didn’t say anything but from a footballing point of view, we’ll do our talking on the field. That’s going to be our answer to this.”