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Monday, 17 June, 2002, 14:26 GMT 15:26 UK
Own goal for Ulster Council
The empty terraces at Clones on Sunday
With typical candour Pat Spillane made no bones about the clash of games on Sunday. "A joke and a disgrace," he said of the Ulster Council's decision to play the Championship semi-final between Donegal and Down at the same time as Ireland were duelling with Spain in Suwon. Love him or hate him, Spillane is certainly outspoken and did not mince his words on RTE's Sunday Game. "As an Irishman I supported the Irish team at the World Cup. ''This was a bad PR exercise on behalf of the Ulster Council."
His studio colleague, Joe Brolly, was "infuriated" by the same decision.
"It was unfair on the players and the supporters,'' said the former Derry All Star. ''The GAA has ended up out of pocket because people didn't travel to the game. "I just can't understand this sort of intransigence. Sometimes you feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall." Jarlath Burns and Martin McHugh were not quite as direct in their choice of words on BBC Northern Ireland's coverage of the match. But the message was the same - the gaelic game should have been moved to avoid a clash.
In defence of the Ulster Council, the start time was agreed a long time ago, before Ireland qualified for the World Cup. And, the 1440 BST throw-in time was to fit into the television schedules, as it is each Sunday afternoon during the summer. Not moved However, Burns felt that something should have been done. "Some accommodation should have been reached," he said. "Big screens should have been put up in the Clones ground to allow people to watch the Spain game," said McHugh.
Most of this could have been washed over if Robbie Keane had not scored a last-ditch penalty to force the game into extra-time, but that is not the point.
It is not the first time the Ulster Council has stuck by its guns in the past two months. Remember the 1845 BST throw-in for Fermanagh v Monaghan last month? Then there was the Tyrone-Armagh replay being fixed for the same time as Donegal v Down in Ballybofey. Many would have liked to have seen the replay played on the Saturday, but I gather that the Council did not want to put the game up against an Ulster hurling tie at Casement Park. If that was an effort to give the ailing sport a boost in Ulster, then why was there a Junior Hurling Championship game played at Clones on Sunday.
That started at 1300BST, before Donegal-Derry game and at the very time that Ireland was playing Spain?
I have spoken to some of the Antrim hurlers involved and they were adamant that Clones at that time was the last place they wanted to be playing the match. And still on hurling, did the Ulster final last Sunday week really have to be fixed for the same time as the first football semi-final between Armagh and Fermanagh? I have put some of these points to Ulster Council Secretary Danny Murphy. He referred me to their schedule being agreed on 26 March and the "lack of opportunity to defer the starting time or postpone the Donegal-Derry game". As for the Junior Hurling, it was "a curtain-raiser because it was agreed there would be a curtain-raiser". Twelve years ago, a very similar situation arose when Ireland played Egypt in Italia '90 at the same time as an Ulster semi-final between Donegal and Derry. The attendance that day was one of the lowest for that stage of the competition. In the intervening years, the GAA has moved with the times by building superb stadia and by removing Rule 21. But many critics and even friends will see this latest episode as another own goal.
Email me at: jerome.quinn@bbc.co.uk |
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