Donegal may have to wait until March for venue call

All-Ireland champions Donegal may have to wait until March before discovering whether they can host Tyrone in Ballybofey in their Ulster quarter-final.

Reconstruction work is currently being done to MacCumhaill Park in the hope the capacity will rise to 17,000 and it will be able to stage the eagerly-awaited May fixture in what will be the counties’ third provincial meeting in as many years.

If the venue’s capacity isn’t deemed fit to hold the match, Clones is likely to be chosen as the neutral venue despite Donegal having won home advantage.

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has already said the game should be fixed for the Monaghan town because of the attractiveness of the fixture and the 30,000 capacity of St Tiernach’s Park.

However, Footballer of the Year Karl Lacey claims it is “very unfair” to Donegal that Ballybofey has yet to be chosen as the venue and suggests it indicates a lack of respect to the county.

Ulster Council secretary Danny Murphy said it will be six to eight weeks before they make a decision.

“In fairness to Donegal, they were inspections done in November in Ballybofey and there is work that needs to be done and we have to give them adequate time before we make the final decision.

“It’ll be reviewed at the end of February or at the start of March. We’ve listed Ballybofey or a neutral venue for the game and we see no reason to change that at the present time.”

Meanwhile, Murphy has hit out at the reporting of the council’s handling of allegations of racism in Crossmaglen’s provincial club final win over Kilcoo.

One Kilcoo player was banned for four months having requested a meeting with the council’s hearings committee after he had been handed a proposed six month suspension while another had the case against him quashed by the same group.

Both cases had been referred to as appeals and each player had been initially charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

“How it was reported was not entirely accurate and slightly misleading,” said Murphy. “It seems to have got lost somewhere that the minimum punishment by rule (for racist abuse) is eight weeks.

“There is also an issue regarding one of the individuals. It wasn’t that he was suspended at all. The committee agreed the evidence wasn’t there to suspend him.’’

“The use of the term appeal is also questionable. An appeal is something that goes to the central appeals committee as within the rules of the GAA.”

The council have yet to conclude their investigations into incidents in the game and a Kilcoo fan, who has already been reprimanded by the Down club, could face further action. “There is still one outstanding aspect arising from the game which has yet to go back to our CCC,” confirmed Murphy. “It’s still in process with the Ulster Council.”

Joey Cunningham, father of Crossmaglen forward Aaron who was the subject of the racist abuse, expressed disappointment with the judgments.

“I’m definitely not happy with this verdict,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

“I would like to ask the question why the six months (ban) was rounded down to four months.

“From them to round it down to four months makes a mockery of this issue.’’