Ned Quinn, chairman of the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee, has attempted to explain the reasons behind why Kildare's request to hold their round three football qualifier game against Mayo at St. Conleth's Park in Newbridge has been denied.
"We have rules," declared Quinn. Though, he never made clear what exactly those rules are beyond saying and reiterating on several occasions that the CCCC has final say as to where games are played.
On Monday morning, Kildare were drawn as the home side in the tie. Later in the afternoon, it was announced that the game would be played as part of a double header in Croke Park on Saturday evening.
In a statement released by Kildare GAA's management committee and in an appearance by manager Cian O'Neill on the RTÉ News, it was made clear that Kildare would only play the game at their home venue.
Speaking on OTB AM, Quinn said that the main motivation behind the CCCC's decision was to ensure that as many supporters as possible - especially Kildare supporters - would get the opportunity to attend the game.
If the game was held in Newbridge, owing to their large number of season ticket holders, there is a chance that Mayo fans could outnumber their Kildare counterparts. This is a factor which did not appear to bother Kildare but still, according to Quinn, it's the reason behind the decision.
"The CCCC has authority that home venues shall be subject to approval by the CCCC and as you are aware, all our grounds have a safety capacity," said Quinn.
In that context, the information before yesterday was that the safety capacity for this game in Newbridge would be 8,000.
Then, when one subtracts the numbers of season ticket holders entitled to a ticket for the game, you further reduce it to approximately 4,500.
We were forced with the option then, put these tickets on general sale online as we usually do or divide them equally between the competing counties.
In either scenario, we felt that just over 2,000 tickets would become available to Kildare supporters as the vast majority of the season ticket holders are from Mayo. The meeting felt that such a situation was not tenable and could lead to a substantial number of people without tickets turning up seeking admission to the game.
Once we decided that this was not tenable, it was the prerogative of Kildare to nominate an alternative venue but Kildare declined to do so in this case and the committee decided - due to the scenario that I outlined - to fix the game for Croke Park as a part of a double header.
The logic of the decision was that one could anticipate a crowd of 20,000 for this game and there was going to be 4,000 of those tickets on sale between the two counties and to us, that meant that we should move the game out of that venue in the best interests of all spectators, both Kildare and Mayo.
I'm just saying that it was a possibility [that people without tickets would turn up], I'm not saying that it would happen. People are eager to see their own county playing championship and it was a possibility that people would turn up seeking to buy tickets outside the ground even though they would have known that tickets were not available.
Though he did not want say that there could be crowd trouble, Quinn said it was felt that there could be "animosity" between fans who have tickets for the match and those who do not.
"The risk would be that people would get involved with other spectators - that's the risk.
"I wouldn't describe it as crowd trouble but there could be animosity shown to people who had tickets, if they couldn't get tickets and were claiming they were regular supporters of Kildare."
Speaking to the Irish Times on Monday evening, Feargal McGill, the GAA’s director of games administration, said that if Kildare do not show up for the game in Croke Park, the match will be awarded to Mayo.
In a moment which showcased the often exceptional lack of joined up thinking in the GAA, Quinn said that the CCCC has not yet discussed if Mayo will be kicked out and that more clarity on the situation should be expected later in the week.
Facilitating season ticket holders was another factor in the rationale.
"As regards season ticket holders, it would be my view that once you enter into a contract with people and take their money then you're obliged to uphold that contract," said Quinn.
This is despite the fine print of season ticket terms and conditions specifically saying: "In the event that the number of Season Ticket holders exceeds stadium capacity the GAA offers no guarantee of the availability of seats or entry to that fixture."
Picture credit: Seb Daly / SPORTSFILE
