Longford footballer Mickey Quinn has said “the punishment doesn't fit the crime” with regards to his club’s 48-week ban.

Emmet Óg Killoe recently lost its appeal against the hefty suspension imposed on them by Longford GAA's Hearings Committee after it was thrown out by the Leinster Council.

The reigning Longford SFC champions were hit with the ban after failing to pay a €750 fine in time. They had received the fine for the club's 'no show' at an underage final last January.

Speaking on Off The Ball this morning, former AFL star Quinn said that it is having serious implications on people within the club and described the ban itself as going “completely against” the ethos of the association.

"It's 12 months, it was September last year that this has all rumbled on from so it's dragging on massively. We're at a crossroads now where we have 48 weeks of a ban, and it's just a real kick in the teeth for a club after coming out of lockdown.

"It just goes completely against what the GAA ethos is about - about community and volunteering. We're a traditional Irish GAA club - two pubs, a church and a GAA pitch in our community and you can only imagine how important the GAA is for the likes of Killoe at this time, and especially the way things have been over the last number of months.

"At the moment, we have five referees that are members of the club - they're not allowed [to] officiate any games. We have potentially two or three guys going off to college that have GAA scholarships lined up, they look like they could be in jeopardy too.

"We have five members on the Longford inter-county senior team, that looks like that's not going to happen, we won't be able to play inter-county for the next 48 weeks.

"And then the likes of myself, I'm a teacher here in St Mel's College in Longford, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to coach a team whenever we're back playing football here in the school.

"[That's] on top of other members that can't officiate, other members that are involved in coaching... It just seems absurd and ridiculous that the punishment doesn't fit the crime."

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