Páirc Uí Chaoimh turns CCTV away from pitch to stop use in red card appeals

Kevin O'Donovan: 'The cameras at Pairc Uí Chaoimh are being pointed in a direction now for their purpose, which is security, safety of patrons, and so on.'

Club players in Cork will no longer be able to call on CCTV footage from Páirc Uí Chaoimh when contesting a red card they received at the venue as the decision has been taken to point cameras away from the field of play.

The Irish Examiner knows of at least one high-profile Cork player who used CCTV footage from Páirc Uí Chaoimh to successfully challenge a red card they had received while on club duty in recent years.

CCTV footage from Páirc Uí Chaoimh was provided by Cork GAA in advance of two separate disciplinary hearings last year, but that practice has now been discontinued.

Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan explained that cameras at Páirc Uí Chaoimh will no longer be pointed in the direction of the field and therefore unable to support a player requesting a hearing.

O’Donovan’s personal view is that the use of CCTV footage in disciplinary cases is not "appropriate".

“The cameras at Pairc Uí Chaoimh are being pointed in a direction now for their purpose, which is security, safety of patrons, and so on,” said O’Donovan.

“They were never put in there for hearings. They are not of a quality that would benefit hearings, in my opinion, but those cameras, in any case, will no longer be pointing in the right direction to support a hearing.

“We don't intend supplying CCTV footage from this point forward for the benefit of those requesting hearings because it simply won't be pointing in the right direction.” 

Although CCTV footage is now off the table for players red-carded at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the other more common means by which to obtain match footage remain.

“Clubs have permission to video games, there is streaming of games, and there are other avenues for tapes. CCTV footage, whether it is appropriate or not, and I believe it isn't, although I would feel duty bound that if we had video footage that we would give it to a player, but from this point forward we simply won't have that footage.

“There were two incidents in the last 12 months that clubs might say, [there] was a previous case and it was provided, but that's because it was available. In future, it simply won't be available for us to give because it won't be pointing in that direction.” Elsewhere, O’Donovan confirmed there will be no rowing back on the county's cashless ticketing policy ahead of the 2023 club season.

“We will continue to engage with patrons who are disenfranchised by the e-ticketing. We will continue to improve the e-ticketing.

“The dream is, ultimately, that the technology will be better in future years and that we will be able to tap again at our games down the road, but we need the cost of the credit card machines to come down to make that viable.

“We do have tapping at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. But we don't plan to row back on cashless ticketing.”