County GAA v County Soccer

..in fairness this is a great idea
..taken from official website

12/11/03,
Unique co-operation to aid Leukaemia Foundation

The County Kildare Senior Football squad and Kildare County FC have agreed on plans to stage a unique game at Station Road on Sunday 14th. December. The main beneficiary from funds raised by the game will be the Mick Wright Leukaemia Research and Facilities Foundation.

The mouth-watering prospect of the Thoroughbreds taking on the Lilywhites in a full ninety minute soccer game should attract a huge attendance for what will be an all ticket game. To add spice to the proceedings the GAA side will be managed by no less a figure than Niall Quinn, whom it is expected will take part in the game at some stage.

A small committee drawn from both organisations is meeting on a regular basis to promote and fine-tune arrangements for the game which will be sponsored by Kildare Used Car Centre. Tickets can be booked by contacting the office or board members of Kildare County FC or any member of the Kildare Senior Football squad.

Great idea, lets hope its a great success. Good to see Niall Quinn involved in the project. I'll be there.

Great idea and for a great cause but has this got GAA sanction. You may recall in the early 90's a similar affair was organsied for the RDS with great publicity only to be scuppered by a GAA bigot. The same gentleman still holds a lot of sway in GAA circles.

From what i can gather this is independent from the GAA County board in Kildare.

It was the Senior players who organised it themselves namely Brian Lacey.

50% of proceeds go to the Charity while 25% goes to the GAA players fund and 25% to Kildare County.

Would they need sanction from the GAA to do something like this?
I mean they are acting totally independently while the only thing they could get them on would be the use of the "Kildare Senior Football Panel"

Seems to be going ahead, big advert in the Kildare Nationalist this week.

Football and soccer unite

KILDARE County are used to playing Lilywhites with three league points at stake, but now, they will be taking on the real deal for charity.

In what will surely be a unique game, the Thoroughbreds will tackle the Kildare senior footballers, as against Dundalk, in a full 90-minute soccer game on Sunday, December 14, with the main beneficiary from funds raised being the Mick Wright Leukaemia Research and Facilities Foundation.


The all-ticket match is sure to attract a large attendance and the fact that P·draig Nolan will be temporarily replaced as manager of the GAA Lilywhites by none other than Eadestown legend (and erstwhile darling of Highbury, Maine Road, the Stadium of Light and Landsdowne Road), Niall Quinn, is sure to add spice to proceedings.


And, should Kildare County win the promotion play-off final the previous evening, which remains a possibility, it will certainly add to the evening s party atmosphere.


Mick Wright is a former Offaly player, whose son Michael was centre-back on the Kildare team that performed so well in this year s championship. Michael and Brian Lacey were heavily involved in the organisation of this innovative event, along with the Board of Kil-dare County.


Mick, the publisher of well known GAA magazine Gaelic World, established the trust fund after making a phenomenal recovery from leukaemia and is delighted with the development and is justifiably confident that such a mouth-watering prospect will capture the imagination of the short grass county s sporting public.


It s a wonderful idea and I am very grateful to both groups for nominating the Mick Wright Leukaemia Research and Facilities Foundation as their charity. It s lovely too to see the two codes in co-operation for such a cause.


Mick first moved to Cel-bridge in 1975 and immediately got involved with the local GAA club, first as a trainer and from 1986 to 1998 as a player - his primary allegiances having been with his home club Daingean, and Offaly.


I played until I was 44 or 45 and I noticed around 98 that the battery was running low. Then I discovered in 99 that I had leukaemia. I was told it was incurable and that I couldn t have a transplant. They gave me five to nine months.


So I looked abroad, to England, France, Spain and America and decided, after being in eight or nine hospitals, on going for a transplant in the Santpau Hospital in Barcelona.


It was a shot in the dark. We don t hold out much hope, but I celebrated the third anniversary of a successful transplant at 5pm on October 19. We re still keeping our fingers crossed. You re always walking on thin ice but so far, so good.


Having seen and experienced how people suffered, and the absence of funds and facilities, I decided that if I lived, I would like to do something for those who came after me.


Former GAA President, Peter Quinn, and PJ Cunningham, Sports Editor of the Irish Independent, helped him to organise a golf classic, with the funds being split equally between St. James s Hospital, Dublin and the Santpau facility. And it has progressed from there.


It is very satisfying to see how the money raised has been used. In Barcelona, they bought apartments across the road and converted it for the use of leukaemia outpatients, who can stay there free of charge. And they did the same in Dublin.


So I thank the Kildare senior footballers and Kildare County from the bottom of my heart and assure them that the money raised will be put to very good use.


Kildare Used Car Centre will sponsor the game and Tickets can be booked by contacting the office or board members of Kildare County FC or any member of the Kil-dare senior football squad.