Another meeting ...surprise surprise... league over ... this debacle will have huge consequences for the Desmond league ....referees, committee & Abbey well done 👍👍
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Another meeting ...surprise surprise... league over ... this debacle will have huge consequences for the Desmond league ....referees, committee & Abbey well done 👍👍
Throwing the toys out??? A member was punched and spat on and it was not handled at all correctly by the league. They took the word of the club over the referee. What should the refs do. Accept it?!!!
The refs are dead right. I can assure you if it was my club and we challenged the referees report we would have been taken out back like old yeller months ago!
Abbeyfeale united quite happy to sit back and watch us all suffer with them over something their players did. The club that finished soccer in west limerick. Well done lads the GAA applaud you!
Very sad to see the league over , it doesn’t cover abbeyfeale full of glory and probably makes them a less attractive club going forward, however The league could have dealt with this matter sooner. The negative publicity this has on the league will effect a lot of young players.
Couldn’t make the meeting last night but was there any decision/suggestions put forward?
Very baffling how neither ref or league could put best interest of players to the fore.... the league is noting without the players who risk getting injured,miss out on Sunday occasions to tog out on the side of the road in some places to play the game on a weekly basis. In abbeys defence if we take all there dealings with it, player suspended and the fine imposed on them was all they could deal with.. the incident could have happened at any grounds. granted it shouldnt happen but it did. refs get there wage players carry the knocks.its the players that suffered most in this. lastly thanks to all the key figures who not for one moment thought of the players who have played or followed the desmond league for years ye have been of great service. i believe my comments on this are making the page of a man posting on other sites at all hours my answer to him is to lay off the bottle and get a few hours sleep..
Just because this season is being given the bullet does not mean that this problem is over, at all. Whatever about the strike of reffing all games, the refs have every right to refuse to referee Abbeyfeale games next year while the perpetrators (as in more than one person) are still at large with no punishment received.
This will set the Desmond League back years and it's incredibly disappointing to see. Whatever issues there already are such as fixturing (which would've still seen us a mile behind where we should've been regardless of whether or not this whole debacle occurred) will have to take a backseat until this is sorted.
I feel really sorry for every single club, particularly Broadford United who had already made the Desmond Cup Final and would have had every chance of winning it, Glin and NCW Town who were denied a potential final place of that competition as well as all the league leaders and promotion hopefuls in the other divisions.
In summary, a sad day for the league.
Has this season officially been given the bullet?????
Or is the decision just on the long finger until this new meeting next week?
You got a LOL out of me for the "still at large" Shearer - is there a major manhunt ongoing :D
Another meeting next week i hear...for what I don't know .. Committee wanted to end league full stop last night but every delegate refused it point blank. The Desmond League will not have a season next year lads never mind this year. Broadford must be sick along with the likes of teams in the 1st & 2nd Division who were getting promoted...cruel after 8 months training for players.
From what I've heard it's done or as good as. In the event of an absolute miracle occurring, you'd have to have teams playing three times a week to make up for lost time.
I said that to myself while writing about the 'at large' bit, said I'd stick with it for dramatic purposes :D
I was on the edge of my seat!!! :D
Christ its a sad time for the Desmond League - even axing the season doesn't resolve ANY of the issues - where do they go for next season!
Was there anyone calling for the committee to stand down at the meeting?
Let's all join the district league except abbey. They can join the Kerry League 🤣🤣
Another meeting next week with the refs this time. There was less meetings to get the good Friday agreement lads lol.
The committee should be ashamed of themselves if the season is finished, the should lead from the front and do everything in there power to get the season finished, each and every one of the members should have a look at there position on that committee, totally shocking.
Everyone’s a volunteer and they all suffering over the committees eagerness to show allegiance to abbey. If they put as much eagerness into the league as a whole, those 5 youths would of been removed for remainder of season as the refs requested and the league would be in tact. But that wouldn’t be enough for Abbey committee members
Everyone is a volunteer, apart from the refs (and they are more than entitled to have their expenses covered), but everyone else is a volunteer for their clubs and have something to gain when they have success, the volunteers who run the league never have anything to gain apart from heartache so some of the comments on here are disgraceful. I hope I'm not alone in being very appreciative for what they have done for local soccer over numerous years. And the option is always there for you to go to the AGM and replace them if you feel you can contribute more.
Who are you or anyone else to decide if five innocent youths are to be punished. Why should those lads be singled out. Of course there is innocent people suffering at the moment, including referees because of this situation, but the fact of the matter is this, the league got a report and they acted on it, an individual gave a signed statement admitting to both offences outlined in the report, there was no appeal from the referees. Once the dispute started, the interim CEO of the FAI, a qualified solicitor believed the actions of the league were correct, representatives from the Munster referees society believed the league were correct, and at a meeting of the clubs three weeks ago, the vast majority of the clubs believed the league were correct. We haven't heard anything from the Irish referees society apart from a brief statement on facebook, which had a comment underneath of a ? from the local referees assessor, indicating that he didn't believe that the national body had backed the local referees. Its pretty plain to see that Abbey/Refs/League or anyone else cant give up another name without leaving themselves up for legal proceedings. I also believe that giving linemen till the end of the season isn't an option, its just kicking the problem down the road. Hopefully at next weeks meeting, everyone will have cool heads and be willing to work on a solution. In my humble opinion though, the solution is putting something in place to ensure that this doesn't happen again at any club going forward, and in the unfortunate event that if it does, that the punishment will be severe and not just two years. Unfortunately this year, everyone is going to end up a looser, hopefully however, I would like to think that people could be smart enough to realise that current demands cannot be met, some pride could be swallowed which would be commended by all, and that something will be put in place to allow the season to finish and put this sorry mess behind us. This could very simply be, the refs outlining their position and their concerns to the clubs next week, asking the clubs what can they do to ensure this wont happen again at each of their grounds, cutting back on verbal abuse especially from the side lines, and the refs on hearing these solutions agreeing to come back and ref again with Abbey once again apologising to the referee in question and withdrawing their team from playing in the youths desmond cup semi final. Of course its not an easy thing for the refs to do, but knowing some of them personally I would like to think that they could be the bigger men and Im sure they wont let us down and will be. Finally, just in case people think Im undermining assault, far from it, it should be strongly condemned, but unfortunately this is one of the extremely rare cases where we are not going to get witnesses to come forward. If we all cant accept that point then we might as well disband the league immediately
What will happen next year with the Desmond league will it go ahead
Who are Abbey to decide that the rest of us throw away our season? A club and youths manager have a responsibility to control their team, they didn’t and a member or members of that team assaulted a ref. Whatever unfair results come of this let them be put to those closest to the problem, not the entire league who didn’t have a single member involved. At the end of the day the refs do not feel safe reffing Abbeyfeale games alone over what happened, no matter what they request the committee should be backing them. Instead they chose to back their mate at the cost of all of us and Abbey chose to put their pride before doing the responsible thing, admit we could of conducted ourselves better and for the good of the DL we will retract those players for the few games left.
After accusing everyone who disagreed with you of being a ref and then counting Facebook likes to bolster your argument, I’d be slow to call people clowns. That “usual rubbish” you are talking about is the rest of the DL, it does exist outside Abbeyfeale.