Club V County: Who is in the Right?

This article is taken from a column from a Mayo newspaper this week.

"League must grasp nettle on code of allegiance"

An old Mayo soccer spleen was re-activated at the weekend.
Westport United decision to withdrawn four players from Mayo's Oscar Traynor Cup squad two days before the quarter final clash against the Leinster Senior League in Dublin raised hackles among the game's administrators.
The big question is whether or not the Mayo League's anger was justified or not.
Let's examine both sides of the argument, starting with Westport United's.
They stand on the verge of becoming the first club from the county to reach the final of the F.A.I. Junior Cup. To achieve that, they must defeat Carew Park of Limerick at Jackman Park, Limerick on Easter Sunday.
Their priority is to have all their players in top physical condition for the match. Player A picked up an ankle injury in the quarter-final win over Killester and it was accepted from an early stage that he would not be available for Mayo.
Player B, Player C and Player D also picked up knocks in the Killester game. Player C has an ongoing problem with a muscle in his back; Player B is carrying a thigh strain; and Player D sustained a groin injury.
Westport felt it was not in the club's best interest to release them 15 days ahead of the Carew Park tie because of the risk of compounding their injuries and are considering resting them for next Sunday's Connaught Cup clash against Gurteen Celtic in Celtic. United did agree to release Player E who has returned to competitive action following a long lay-off.
And they did release all their players for Mayo's previous outing against Cork despite having the Killester game in their sights.
So as far as they were concerned, there was nothing sinister in their actions as they were genuinely looking after the interest of their injured players whom are first and foremost Westport United players.
The Mayo League's case is equally as convincing, although it is only right to point out that this writer (sic) is an officer of that organisation.
With the help of their clubs, they have invested heavily in developing their Under-21 and Oscar Traynor Cup squads and believe they have a duty to ensure that the best players are involved at all times.
As it happened, Player A,B,C and D were four of the finest players on the Mayo team preparing for last Saturday's Oscar Traynor Cup clash.
The last thing the team management expected was for all four of them to be unavailable at the same time without the opportunity of the Mayo League being given the opportunity last Thursday evening to assess the fitness of the players for themselves.
In view of Westport United's perceived lack of support for Mayo's Eircom (Under-21) League campaign last year, alarm bells automatically went off in the ears of Mayo League officials and team management.
Disappointingly, the situation was not helped by Mayo losing 1-0 to the Leinster Senior League. But the result could well have been the same with the Westport United players on the side.
What is abundantly clear now, however, is that it is in the Mayo League's interest and in the interest of all their clubs to put down a clear marker in regard to the availability of players for inter-league duty, something that was advocated some time ago but never implemented.
It is vital that everybody knows where they stand and clubs not prepared to sign up to a code of allegiance must accept their players not being selected by the Mayo League. It will result in some hardship for the Mayo League, but there is no other option.
The nettle must be grasped.

Now folks, after reading this article (I refrained from using actual names of players, the newspaper title and article writer in this forum thread deliberately), give us your opinions on this particular saga and how this would be dealt with by other leagues. Who is right or who is wrong is the most important question in this debate? :ball:

It also has to be remembered that clubs in Mayo play summer soccer and the more successful clubs like Manulla, Castlebar Celtic, Westport United and Erris United goes straight into their new season when they are knocked out of the latter stages of external competitions, which adds onto all these inter league soccer matches. Some of the inter league players play continously for twelve months of the year.