Special meeting called at Bord na nÓg

THE officers of Bord na nÓg Iomaint have called a special meeting for Tuesday night next following the decision of the county hearings committee (CHC) to rule in favour of a Bodyke appeal against a decision of the board to schedule an U-14C Championship semi-final for Friday evening last.

“We have called a full board meeting to bring the clubs up to speed on where things are,” Bord na nÓg chairman Martin Reynolds told The Clare Champion this week.

Bodyke were scheduled to play Crusheen-Tubber in the U-14C semi-final last Friday and they appealed against this decision to the CHC where they were successful.

“The Hearings committee ruled in favour of Bodyke and decided we should reschedule the game. It’s the first time a hearing has taken place about a fixture that hasn’t taken place. Bord na nÓg officers reject the findings of the committee in this case. They said there was ambiguity in the way the competition was run but they still haven’t clarified as to where the ambiguity is. We cannot proceed until this is cleared up to our satisfaction,” said a clearly annoyed Bord na nÓg chairman.

“We have called an extraordinary general meeting for Tuesday night to bring the clubs of the county up to speed on this,” the Clarecastle man added.

Bodyke secretary Sean O’Halloran, ironically a former chairman of the board, explained that his club flagged the issue 10 weeks ago. “When we received the fixtures schedule, the semi-finals were scheduled for June 7 with the final for June 14. We informed all the parents of these dates and asked them to factor them in when arranging their holidays. The fact that the dates changed led to the problem. Six of our panel are away on holidays and we only have a panel of 16.”

It seems that a week was lost due to a play-off and this semi-final fixture was then set for June 14 but due to a bereavement in Crusheen, the game was cancelled. It wasn’t scheduled for the following week as both parishes had schools in the Cumann na mBunscoil finals at Cusack Park, which led to the match being put down for Friday, June 28.

It is understood a meeting between representatives of both clubs and Bord na nÓg suggested playing the fixture last Friday as a 10-a-side game. The Bord na nÓg fixture booklet states that this is a 13-a-side competition.

It remains to be seen if Tuesday’s meeting will decide to appeal the CHC decision.