Sinn Fein TD and former Cork City chairman Jonathan O’Brien was escorted out of Turner’s Cross on Friday night during an Airtricity League game.
O'Brien has been critical of the FAI in recent weeks and was part of the Oireachtas Committee that quizzed members of the board and former CEO John Delaney last Wednesday. He was in attendance during Cork City's draw with St. Patrick's Athletic.
The Cork North Central TD intervened during a dispute between protestors and security personnel. Fans had displayed a “Delaney Out” banner during the game which security attempted to seize.
The Cork supporters liaison group hit out at the "unacceptable and heavy-handed" approach.
Unacceptable and heavy handed treatment of loyal @CorkCityFC Supporters tonight. We feel it's important to highlight the unacceptable treatment of our Supporters during a peaceful protest. #CCFC84 #LeagueOfIreland pic.twitter.com/0gqNXKvmFE
— CCFC Independent SLO (@CCFC84_SLO) April 12, 2019
Former Cork City chairman John O'Sullivan also criticised the action.
Sinn Fein and Jonathan O'Brien have confirmed he was allowed re-enter the ground before the end of the game.
In a statement, Cork City said they are looking into the incident.
The club is aware of discussion around an incident that took place during last night’s game at Turner’s Cross.
The club intends to review reports and speak to all parties concerned. The board is committed to making visits to Turner’s Cross an enjoyable one for all supporters. We apologise for any upset these actions caused for our supporters/staff and will review all of the club’s internal security procedures with our event controller and Gardaí.
We will update our members and supporters when we have more information.
They would like anyone with footage to email [email protected].
It comes after a strong reaction to the FAI's appearance at the Oireachtas last week. Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was critical of the answers provided at that meeting.
“I don’t think anyone would be satisfied by it. I think the public taxpayers, football fans would have liked to have seen those questions answered."
Elsewhere, a protest banner was displayed after the 33rd minute during Silgo Rovers victory over Dundalk at the Showgrounds. This passed without incident.
