'Where do you stop?' - GAA explains why Sligo game deferral not feasible

November 05, 2020

GAA's head of games administration Feargal McGill. ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo.

Feargal McGill has said that postponing a match because of a Covid-19 outbreak is not possible as there is no guarantee the team affected could be ready to play seven days later or that an opposition side wouldn’t be affected.

Sligo handed a walk over to Galway in Saturday’s Connacht SFC semi-final as they were unable to field due to a serious Covid-19 outbreak in their squad. 

While the Connacht final is scheduled for the following weekend, there is a three week gap between the provincial decider and the All-Ireland semi-final. That led to calls for the Sligo v Galway game to be rescheduled and Yeats County manager Paul Taylor has said his players were angry that this didn’t happen.

However, the GAA's Director of Player, Club and Games Administration has said that setting a precedent of postponing a match could lead to wholesale disruption of the championship going forward.

McGill speaking to RTE said that postponing the Sligo-Galway game this weekend doesn’t guarantee that the match could be played the following Saturday: “What I would say is that I know from various conversations we’ve all had, that’s all grand assuming that something doesn’t happen in Galway in the meantime or a second wave doesn’t hit Sligo. 

“So where do you stop?

"It’s not ideal but, what I would say is that a number of things about this year’s championship aren’t ideal but we knew they were coming.”


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