Stewarding not up to scratch, say GAA chiefs

Munster Council officials have accepted that “inadequate stewarding” in a section of Semple Stadium contributed to chaotic scenes prior to Tuesday night’s provincial minor hurling final replay.

Hundreds of fans who arrived late streamed across the pitch to gain access to an empty stand while Limerick and Waterford players completed their pre-match preparations, while some spectators were still on the field when referee John O’Brien threw in the ball for the start.

But according to Munster Council officials, the New Stand, which was the only side of the ground open on the night, had sufficient capacity to comfortably seat all those present.

PRO Ed Donnelly last night said that a full review of the incident will occur with the matter set to be discussed at a scheduled meeting of the Council tonight.

“The Munster Council expected and planned for an attendance of between 5,000 to 6,000 at Tuesday night’s Munster minor hurling final replay,” he said.

“The attendance on the night was 6,532, as confirmed by the stadium stile counter system. The council is satisfied that this is accurate of the numbers in attendance.

“As with all fixtures of this nature, the only side of the ground that was opened was the New Stand. This stand has a capacity of 10,000, which was more than adequate to cater for the numbers that attended.

“As a large number of people came to the ground with 15 minutes to go to throw in, we took the decision to postpone the throw-in for 10 minutes in order to allow everyone safe entry.

“We are satisfied that this was the correct decision and are satisfied that queues had dissipated at 7.35pm. This was actively monitored by Council officials.

“Regarding the fans who walked across the pitch from the New Stand to the Kinane Stand, we regret any inconvenience caused to the participating teams in their preparations for the game and we will be reviewing the matter with Semple Stadium. We regret that a minority of fans took the decision to leave the New Stand, which had ample room to accommodate all patrons.

“The council acknowledges that there was inadequate stewarding to the front of the stand to cope adequately with this patron behaviour and it is a matter that we will review.”

Munster vice-chairman Jerry O’Sullivan has promised a swift investigation

O’Sullivan said: “Both ends of the (new) stand were empty – there were plenty of seats but somebody got the notion that there were plenty of empty seats on the far side and decided to dash across.

“It was a bit unsatisfactory but there was more than adequate room in the (New) Stand and everybody would have had a perfectly good view.”

O’Sullivan said that there was no sign of crowd congestion when he arrived at the venue.

He added: “I got there about ten to seven and there were no queues. But people came late and so many people trying to enter at the one time can’t all get in instantly. We always encourage people to come early to these events but they don’t always do so.”