GAA to get tough on abuse

Racial abuse and homophobic taunting will soon be a straight red card offence in Gaelic games.

That’s the belief of European board secretary Tony Bass whose Dutch club, Maastricht Gaels, have jointly submitted a motion on the issue to the GAA’s upcoming Annual Congress.

Maastricht’s initial motion was merged with one from the GAA’s Inclusion/Integration Committee to form proposal number 54 which will be voted on by delegates in Derry next month. The joint motion proposes an amendment to the current rule setting out the Association’s outlawing of anti-sectarian and anti-racist behaviour.

If passed, which it is fully expected to, any acts considered ‘contrary to the principles of inclusion and diversity against a player, official, spectator or anyone else’ will subsequently be deemed an offence.

According to Bass, the motion is mainly a preemptive measure though he was also cognisant of an increasing number of sectarian and racist rows in domestic Gaelic games in recent months.

As things stand, however, there is still no provision for a referee to be able to issue a straight red card to a player for offences. Motion 54 proposes that sanctions continue to be dealt with under the penalties for ‘misconduct considered to have discredited the association’, the maximum penalty for which is expulsion.

Bass said his club will push hard in 2015 — when they are next allowed to propose rule changes — for straight red cards to be the immediate on field sanction.

“It’ll certainly be our intention to bring that in,” said Bass. “I’m a referee as well and it’s a difficult one. At the moment, all I can do is have a word with a player. Certainly, it’s our intention that once the playing rules are up for review, in 2015, we’d bring forward a motion to give out red cards.”

Maastricht’s initial motion, before being merged and reworded, specified ‘anti-homophobic’ behaviour, along with the other forms of on field abuse.

“We’re not responding to a specific issue of homophobia, it’s more a general, pre-emptive thing,” continued Bass. “However, I have heard stuff myself. And the point would have been made that you can get a red card for pulling someone’s jersey twice. But you can’t get one if you call someone a lesbian bitch or a gay boy. Those are things you’d hear so I would hope Central Council will bring forward a specified on field punishment. If they don’t we certainly will.”

In all, 74 motions will be down for discussion at Congress. Motions four to 25 are the recommendations of Eugene McGee’s Football Review Committee.

There is a tweak to the black card proposal regarding suspensions picked up in All-Ireland semi-finals. An amnesty had been included for those incurring a one match ban in a semi-final, as a result of cumulative black cards.

But at a Croke Park briefing yesterday, Director General Paraic Duffy confirmed the amnesty has now been removed from the motion. The loop hole for a player to pick up a black card, following a yellow card, and still be replaced by a substitute has also been closed off. The Congress motion specifies that, in that instance, players will be ordered off and cannot be replaced.

Top GAA official Duffy has been pointed in his recent remarks about the provincial councils, urging them to take more decisive action with various affairs.

However, motions 35 and 36, proposed by the GAA’s Rules Advisory Committee, seek to strengthen the GAA’s hand at central level when it comes to dealing with rogue counties.

The first motion allows, in part, for Central Council to have the power to impose stiff penalties on counties for not fulfilling club fixtures because of the county’s involvement in inter-county championship action. Last year, for example, Donegal’s senior club football championship suffered huge delays because of the county team’s All-Ireland odyssey.

The next motion attempts to give Central Council the power to ‘take such action (against counties) as is deemed necessary to ensure proper financial governance’.

It’s understood this is rooted in alarm at rising year to year expenditure by counties, as opposed to planned investments in developments and facilities.

Duffy pointed out that, if passed, various motions, such as the recommendation for a clock and hooter system, could be introduced for the start of this year’s championship. This will be at the discretion of Central Council who meet two weeks after Congress. However, black cards won’t come into operation until January 1, 2014.