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05th Jul 2018

GAA releases statement on the Dublin vs Donegal venue dispute

Paul Moore

dublin donegal croke park

The Dubs using Croke Park as their ‘home’ venue has been a contentious issue.

The GAA have confirmed that Croke Park will host the meeting of Dublin and Donegal in the latter stages of the All-Ireland Championship.

Donegal objected to the venue being used on the grounds that Croke Park is, essentially, the Dubs’ home pitch as it where they have played all of their home league and championship games in recent years.

Under the rules of the new Super 8 format, each participating team is supposed to have one home game, one away game and one game at a neutral venue, Croke Park.

Essentially, Donegal felt that these rules were being skewered to favour the All-Ireland champions because they frequently play at GAA HQ.

In light of these objections, Donegal County Board officials met with the GAA and the following statement has been released.

The joint-statement read: “The GAA has confirmed that a meeting between senior officials and members of the Donegal County Committee took place in Croke Park earlier today.

“It was accepted as part of these discussions, that the rules in relation to the new All-Ireland SFC quarter-final round robin system had been democratically adopted at Congress 2017 and that these provided for all Round 1 games to be played at Croke Park and each county to subsequently have one home and one away game.

“While Donegal challenged how any team could nominate Croke Park as their home venue, it was acknowledged that there was nothing in Rule to prohibit this.

“Donegal also requested in light of the issues they highlighted, that a review of the first year of the new Championship structures be held by Central Council later in the year and that all counties be invited to submit their observations in this context.”

The statement concluded: “It was agreed that the issues highlighted by Donegal would be considered as part of this process and that if Central Council collectively felt that non-structural changes to aspects of the Championship were required, that these could be put to Annual Congress in 2019 for consideration.”

Topics:

Donegal,Dublin,GAA