Former All-Ireland referee John Bannon has accused the GAA of ignoring calls for greater security to be provided to match officials at Croke Park.

Speaking to the Irish Independent in the wake of last Sunday's attacks on Tyrone referee Martin Sludden, the Longford native said: "Over the years, we made several suggestions, like the possibility of putting up a wire meshing around the referees' tunnel to stop things being thrown.

"Over the years, I would have had the odd bottle thrown at me.

"Three or four years ago, I personally suggested at a referees' meeting that Croke Park should install a covered tunnel for referees, like the ones that FIFA use, but nothing has ever come of it."

Bannon also believes that the location of the officials' dressing-rooms in Croke Park, which are in the corner between the Cusack and Davin Stands, is not ideal for getting referees off the pitch quickly when a problem does arise.

"As far as I know, they put a new referees' dressing-room into the bottom of the Hogan Stand when the soccer and rugby internationals came to Croke Park but it has only been used by the FAI and IRFU," the recently-retired inter-county whistler added.

"I don't understand why this is not being used, because you can access it from the middle of the pitch and should be able to get to it a lot quicker than the ones they are using." Tweet

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