Athlone Town's Aaron Callaghan announced yesterday that he would be vacating his managerial role with the SSE Airtricity League First Division Club.
Citing "personal reasons" for his decision to leave the league's bottom club, the Football Association of Ireland have confirmed this afternoon that Callaghan "has been suspended from all football-related activity within the Republic of Ireland for a six-month period."
Coming into immediate effect, a statement from football's governing body described how Callaghan, "whilst under the sanction of a two-match suspension, ignored FAI Rules restricting him from entering the dressing room area."
Furthermore, Callaghan's behaviour therein "was deemed both offensive and intimidating towards match officials."
A Disciplinary Committee considered "the match officials' reports and written submissions" in reaching their conclusion, relaying the list of FAI Rules Callaghan was found to be in breach of:
Part D, Section 2, Rule 13: Offensive Behaviour (April 20, 2018)
Part D, Section 2, Rule 15: Intimidation/Threats (April 20, 2018)
Part D, Section 12, Rule 90: Failure to Respect Decisions (April 20, 2018)
Part D, Section 2, Rule 13: Offensive Behaviour (April 28, 2018)
Part D, Section 12, Rule 90: Failure to Respect Decisions (April 28, 2018)
With Athlone Town currently sitting bottom of the SSE Airtricity League Division One, Callaghan had informed Off The Ball of the difficulties he had encountered whilst working with the club:
To raise the bar in any industry you need to set professional standards and evolve with the competition. Somehow this message never landed. The players and staff have my upmost respect and I wish them every success. The last straw was on Monday night when there was no physio and no warm up gear.
Athlone have currently only taken 1 point from 9 games played.
