County Board to meet Club Chairpersons over Club Championship crowd ban

The controversy over the decision of the Leitrim GAA County Board to ban fans from attending the knockout stages of the Men's Club Championship will be addressed on Tuesday night at a special meeting of Club Chairpersons and the County Board Executive at the McGovern London Leitrim GAA Centre of Excellence in Annaduff.

Friday's annoucement that the County Board had taken the decision to exclude all spectators from the knockout stages of the club championships sparked a firestorm of reaction with those outside the county generally positive but the majority of Leitrim based fans were heavily against the idea, fiercely critical of the County Board.

The Leitrim Observer understands that a number of clubs had written to the County Board and Chairman Enda Stenson confirmed that in response to the issue, the County Board will meet with the chairperson of each club on Tuesday evening.

"Due to the disquiet caused by the decision and on foot of a number of emails from clubs, we have decided to hold a meeting with the club's chairpersons on Tuesday evening at the centre of excellence," Enda told the Observer, "The clubs can discuss the issue with the Board and whatever they decide, we will have no issue with it.

"However, all that can be allowed in to any game at one time is 200 people according to the guidelines and this includes both teams, match officials, media as well as stewards and officials," said Enda.

Anecodotal and photographic evidence from several games in the Connacht Gold Senior and Smith Monumentals Intermediate Championship would seem to suggest that the limit of 200 people attending games has been regularly breeched by clubs hosting games while social distancing measures also seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

In the statement announcing the decision last Friday, the County Board said "While this is a decision that is bound to register immediate shock, there is a strong rationale behind it. It is widely recognised that when arriving at the concluding stages of any competition, interest levels rise accordingly.

"Interest in our games at group stages has been heightened in the very fact that there was such a long layoff from sporting activity and we also believe that interest levels will have risen sufficiently high enough to ensure that the current restriction of a maximum of 200 people per venue, inclusive of players and officials, will not be near enough to satisfy demand.

"This, almost certainly, will place club officials and county officials in a near-impossible situation as regards who will gain access to the limited number of ‘golden tickets’ in match situations which would, in all practicality, see the number of tickets available to supporters reduce from a heretofore 60 per club to a number at most 50 and probably even less when one considers the various interested parties who will naturally look to attend as our competitions move towards a conclusion.

"With the current crowd restrictions, it is viewed as being the fairest solution to all concerned to allow access to no supporters as distinct to having to cater for an impractical situation that would arise at the local level with regard to the distribution of these few precious tickets, and the probability of inevitable confrontation that could follow at turnstiles at venues in consideration of people who have not gained a ticket.

"In contemplating the groundbreaking nature of this decision, we trust that you accept that it has been made in the best interests of all concerned, given that we have to ensure the safety of all, players, officials, and supporters in the midst of a pandemic that does not seem to be going away anywhere soon."

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