All-Ireland ladies club champions Carnacon will play in this year's Mayo championship.
At a Connacht LGFA council meeting in Ballyhaunis on Tuesday night, the Mayo county board was unsuccessful in an appeal to have the club thrown out of the county championship.
It had sought to do so on grounds that Carnacon had brought the game into disrepute by withdrawing eight players from the county team.
The club will instead be fined €500 and the eight county players have been given four-week suspensions.
Carnacon last December won their sixth All-Ireland title and this year aim to win their 20th county title.
In a statement from Mayo LGFA on Tuesday regarding the 12 players and two backroom team members who withdrew from the county team back in July, the subject of Carnacon being removed from the championship was addressed.
The clubs were of the opinion that the Carnacon clubs' actions in withdrawing their players from the senior panel went against the ethos of the LGFA in the manner that it was done and through the subsequent statement released. The club delegates felt that members of the Carnacon club were complicit in the whole event and had brought Mayo LGFA into disrepute by causing a very public storm through their actions and the harmful statement which followed.
There was a lot of hurt and anger and the clubs felt strongly that Carnacon should be sanctioned for bringing the organisation, their clubs and players into disrepute. As a County Board Executive, we were compelled to sanction the Carnacon club after an overwhelming majority vote. While we were acutely aware that the sanction would affect players who were not part of the walkout, we feel that it was the Carnacon club who removed their young players from a county panel where they would have enjoyed bright futures.
Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
