Louth board say matter is closed
July 14, 2010
Louth County Board Chairman Padraig O'Connor
Louth county board's executive met again this afternoon and later released a statement that they intend to take no further action regarding the Leinster final outcome and at no stage contemplated legal action.
The executive met in Castlebellingham and after consulting with all parties including players and management, and having had time to react to Meath's decision not to offer a re-fixture, the Wee County GAA fraternity decided it was time to move on.
Additionally, Louth were keen to point out that they did not look into the option of going down the legal route to try and get a favourable outcome from the matter.
The board went on to say that their attention has now turned to the county's next game in the championship, the All-Ireland round 4 qualifier against one of the four winners of this weekend's round 3 games.
The statement from the Louth county board reads:Leinster Football Championship Final; An Lú v An Mhí.
In relation to incidents which occurred during and after the LSFC Final on Sun 11th July 2010 the Executive Committee of the Louth County Board have met on a number of occasions to discuss the events of the day and correspondence pertaining to same.
Goalmouth incident at the end of match: The referee has indicated in his report that he blew the whistle for a penalty, but then changed his mind and awarded a goal instead, which is contrary to Playing Rules. We also fail to understand why the referee did not consult with both umpires in relation to the goal being awarded, which is also contrary to guidance given to referees in such contraversal circumstances. In the light of this and the clear admission in the referees report that he "made a terrible mistake", the referees Report therefore is questionable.
Rule 6.41 Award //facts of game: The award of the game rests with the committee / council in charge acting on the referees report.
We would contend that that the committee/council in charge erred in leaving the matter to Meath County Board to offer a replay, without seeking clarification from the referee in relation to his match report and his statement "he made a terrible mistake".
Despite the fact that there are several avenues open to us to question the result we believe we have a responsibility to our members and supporters alike to display leadership on this issue and to move forward to the qualifiers. At no stage (contrary to media reports) did we have a legal representative present at any of our deliberations and we would also like to state that at no stage did we consider legal proceedings on the matter.
The sense of injustice which is being felt in Louth GAA is enormous. However, the executive committee of The Louth County Board, the Senior Team Management and players have decided to take no further action regarding the outcome of the Leinster Football Championship Final.
On behalf of Louth GAA we would take this opportunity to congratulate our players and team management on a magnificent performance on Sunday, and wish them every success in the remainder of the championship. We would also take this opportunity to thank our loyal supporters who turned out in their thousands to cheer our team on, and we would encourage them to continue with their loyal support in the remainder of the Championship.
We have already condemned the disgraceful scenes which occurred post match and we would reiterate that there is no place for those individuals within our organisation.
We wish the Meath Players and management every success in their campaign.
Louth have had over the years a long and proud history of promoting the best interests of the GAA and will continue to strive to do so on and off the field of play.
Finally in light of the tragic events which occurred in Donegal over the weekend we realise that we must put our situation in context and we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those deceased.
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