Clare soccer caught offside

With the Clare Junior Soccer League season drawing to a close and the Schoolboys/girls League season just after opening, it is off-field activities that are uppermost in people’s minds. A walkout from a recent meeting by two members of the executive and the resignation of a member of the schoolboys’ executive will be discussed at a meeting this Thursday night. Sports Editor Seamus Hayes reports

THE possibility of forming a ‘breakaway league’ from the Clare Junior Soccer League is expected to be discussed at a meeting this Thursday night.
Things have come to a head following the decision of two members of the executive, neither of them involved in the organisation of this week’s meeting, to walk out of a recent meeting of the league executive.
Former chairmen and long-serving committee members, Pádraig McCullough and Jim Madden both left a meeting of the executive because of dissatisfaction with a number issues.
McCullough has served the league in various capacities over the last 30 years and is an authority on its rules. Confirming that he had walked out, he told The Clare Champion “too many members of the committee are compromised and this is letting the standards of the league go down. The way the Newmarket B v Inch game was handled was wrong. You make a decision and, if there is an appeal, it goes to Munster. The chairman allowed an appeal and a decision made a week earlier was rescinded. The procedures must be the same for all clubs,” he said.
“Members of the league have to be above reproach with the way they do their business,” said Madden when confirming he had also left the meeting. Neither man has resigned from the league.
“It’s a dictatorship,” McCullough claimed. “Decisions are not being made by the executive, which should be the case. We don’t need a breakaway league. We need people to stand up and take positions on the committee.”
The decision to deal with an appeal from one of the people disciplined following the abandonment of the game between Newmarket B and Inch is just one of a number of decisions giving rise to the concern that has led to the calling of this week’s meeting.
There is disquiet at the way the league committee dealt with the cup fixture between Connolly and Kilkishen. Connolly won the game but it transpired they fielded a player who had been sent off the previous week and who should have been under suspension.
There are allegations that the ‘same standards’ aren’t being applied in relation to requests for free weekends and in relation to the payment by clubs of their registration fees.
Asked about these issues, league chairman, Donie Garrihy said,“I can’t comment on speculation”.
League secretary, Oliver Fitzpatrick said, “Anyone on the league who is part of a club, which is the subject of a disciplinary hearing, will leave the room when their case is being dealt with. In relation to free weekends, all clubs were written to some time ago and told that there would be no more free days after a certain date. This was as a result of all the weeks that there were no fixtures due to inclement weather.  The same rule applies to all clubs. All fees have to be paid by the AGM each year. This is stated clearly on the nomination form and is standard practice.”
League registrar, Leo Murphy said there is no favouritism whatsoever. “Clubs are struggling, there is no doubt, and the league is patient with clubs and we are trying to accommodate them. This isn’t the first year that clubs have had difficulties. It happens almost every year but all the money will be collected,” he said.
Reconsidering
resignation
Clare schoolboys/girls league vice-chairman, John O’Neill is considering a request from the league chairperson, Alfonso D’Auria to re-consider his decision to resign from the committee. O’Neill was the unanimous choice for the post of vice-chairman at the AGM last December.
That meeting did not consider a financial report as the delegates were told by the outgoing chairman, Tommy Molloy, that the league’s books for the past two to three years were being audited.
That auditor’s report was recently presented to a full delegate meeting where “it was accepted without opposition”. It reflected the accounts to be in good order. 
The meeting voted on a certain course of action and failure to carry out that decision led to O’Neill’s resignation
Alfonso D’Auria, elected as chairman of the league at the AGM in December, said he had a meeting with O’Neill and asked him to re-consider his decision to resign. “He is a football man and a very experienced official, who is invaluable to the league. I hope he will give a positive response to my request that he not resign his position.”
“There is a lot of hearsay and innuendo floating around,” D’Auria acknowledged.