Galway girls suffer heartbreak over All-Ireland Final expulsion

The All-Ireland hopes and dreams of Galway’s U14 ladies football squad were shattered to smithereens this week after they were unceremoniously dumped out of the championship on a boardroom technicality.

Instead of preparing for an All-Ireland final appearance, the Galway girls, who defeated Cavan in the semi-final last Saturday week, are absolutely heartbroken after being disqualified from the competition and forced to forfeit the game.

The cruel decision by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) Central Council deprives the 12 and 13 year old schoolgirls of fulfilling their dreams of appearing in an All-Ireland football final.

According to one Galway parent, his daughter cried herself to sleep because of the decision and said: “Why dad, why? We did nothing wrong; it’s not fair, it’s just not fair.”

LGFA claim that one of the Galway girls who played in the 3-11 to 1-12 semi-final thriller in Moate, which was won after extra time, was not registered with the association.

Galway County Board and the player’s club say that in the days prior to the June 13 match, registration payments were made to the association, and monies left the bank account.

But it appears that a problem with the payment system, PayPal, meant that the player who had played in good faith in the understanding she had been registered, weren’t received by LGFA.

At a hearing last Thursday, Central Council found Galway County Board had breached rule 56 by playing an unregistered player – they were fined €100, had to forfeit the game and were thrown out of the competition without any appeals process.

Cavan, who were beaten on the field of play, now advance to the final.

The decision has devastated the Galway players and angered management, parents and local officials, who have demanded an urgent meeting with LGFA, to discuss the “totally unacceptable treatment” of the children.

Galway has now requested a replay of the Cavan game. There is precedent for this – Mayo won the 2005 U14 Connacht final but with an unregistered player and sop a replay was agreed by both managers.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.