A footballer in Tipperary's Southern and District League has been served an indefinite suspension in bizarre circumstances following the Tipperary Cup semi-final between Clonmel Celtic and Clonmel Town last week.
More unusual still, the player in question - believed to be named Eddie Sweeney - plays for neither Clonmel side, but Kilsheelan United, a club from a parish in the barony of Iffa and Offa East.
Sweeney was attending the Cup semi as a spectator and allegedly 'refused' to pay the €5 entry fee on his arrival at Celtic Park in Clonmel, though was let into the ground and allowed to watch the game regardless. Others have suggested that Sweeney was simply unaware that there was an entrance fee at all, and didn't have any change on his person. In either case, he was let into the ground with little issue.
However, on Monday morning his club received an extremely peculiar letter regarding his 'refusal' to pay the fee, and Sweeney has now been suspended indefinitely by the Tipperary Southern and District League. He is forbidden from playing for Kilsheelan until the issue is rectified.
We spoke with Clonmel-based football journalist Dale O'Donnell, who initially raised the issue on his Facebook page having attended last week's match. O'Donnell remarked as to the ridiculous nature of the suspension, and reiterated that the player in question simply didn't have change on his person but was let through by a match steward who was apparently not from the area.
He also explained how he tried to contact the Tipperary Southern and District League for clarification as to the legitimacy of their decision to suspend the player in such circumstances, but made "little progress" with whoever it was that answered the phone.
After some phonecalls of our own, we received an image of the letter which the TSDL sent to Sweeney's club, informing them of his immediate and indefinite suspension until he coughs up five bob for the entrance fee.
You really couldn't write it, and we didn't have to:
Just imagine being poor P.J., presumably Kilsheelan's secretary, receiving that letter on a Monday morning! FAI watermark and all - that's when you know they mean business.
The solution is rather straightforward, of course: pay the fee, and get back playing. But formally issuing suspensions to amateur footballers over entrance fees to games in which they didn't partake whatsoever is, well, a bit Irish, and surely a farcically highfalutin approach to governing a rural football league.
