Latest IFA fiasco

[AnnaghRed]

Larne relegated and fined heavily

Larne have been relegated from the Irish Premier League after being found guilty of playing Padraig Gollogley without international clearance.

A special committee met at the Irish FA on Friday and the club had 16 points deducted and was fined £8,000, £500 for each game the defender played in.

Gollogley had been turning out for the Inver Park club since last December.

Larne official Sam McCready said he was "devastated" but stressed the club would lodge an appeal on Monday.

"I am speechless and disgusted by this decision which is absolutely disgraceful," said the former Larne chairman.

"I know that we have done nothing wrong and we will fight on.

"If we lose our appeal, we will be taking court action as we have worked too hard to get Larne where they are today to just let it all go.

"We have written confirmation from the IFA saying that Padraig could play and the international certificate is a matter for the IFA.

"I appeal to the people of Larne to come out in their thousands for the game against Donegal Celtic to show how important a provincial club like ours is to the local people."

The controversy arose because Dundalk-based Gollogley played for an intermediate club in the Republic of Ireland , Dromin United, in between leaving Newry City and joining Larne.

That means he would have needed international clearance to resume playing in Northern Ireland.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...sh/6602023.stm

And Sky have just handed these clowns £10m!!

[-lamb-]

some background -
an anonymous letter dated mid march was sent oly a week or so ago to all irish premier league clubs. this stated that gollogley wasn't register properly.

pre-xmas larne were at the foot of the table and, lets be honest, crap. paul curran came in and turned it all around, gaining 19 points in 16 games since the mid season mark and steering us clear of relegation and playoffs, depending on the last game of the season (tomorrow). we were until this evening sitting 3rd bottom and playing quite well.
loughgall, bottom, lodged an official appeal alledgedly under influence of glenavon (sitting 2nd bottom untill tonight).

the crux of the matter is that the ifa never checked that they had given an itc to the fai and cleared the player to play for larne. larne have this written clearance and have acted in good faith all along.
larne, thinking all was well, played gollogley and he made a real difference to our defence.
since the letter emerged it has been claimed the information that gollogley was not properly registered was kept secret until needed, causing maximum damage to larne.

privately the ifa have admitted their mistake but not publicly. the ifa called together an "indepenent" panel of, guess who, ifa men, alledgedly pre-briefed about the case and the wished for result.
they chose today to "bury bad news" and get this case out of the spotlight while they use the media space/time to bum up their new sky deal. i've heard the larne reps weren't even given an opportunity to present their case (TBC).
tonight larne fc were fined £8000 (very large for the irish league, £500 max penalty for every game with unregistered player) AND deducted all points from these matches.
this relegates larne, leaves them in huge financial diffs AND diminishes points towards the new invitational league criteria. it could also effect a proposed new stadium.

basically the governing body (there to support and help clubs under their auspices) made a serious mistake and, to their shame, won't admit any wrongdoing and will possibly put a club of 118 years history to the wall to save face.
as i have said, larne might have also made a mistake to some degree but have acted in good faith regarding clearance. for this we are hit with the severest fine possible. to put it in comparison, remember the televised riot at the glentoran-linfield game? £5000 fine if i remember right.

larne will appeal and take the matter through the high courts if necessary as our survival may depend on it.
(the whole sorry mess can be read about on irishleagueforums.net but be prepared for about 20+ threads with the biggest running to over 60 pages as of 00.50)


Shame on the IFA
WE ARE LARNE

[-lamb-]

update: larne won today, so face relegation solely through this case. the larne representatives weren't even allowed to preasent their case. the decision had already been made. an appeal to the ifa will be launched on monday.
the cases involving afc wimbeldon and west ham should be compared.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...nf/6496543.stm


Last Updated: Monday, 26 March 2007, 14:55 GMT 15:55 UK


FA cuts AFC Wimbledon punishment

AFC Wimbledon have had their points deduction reduced from 18 to three by an FA appeal board.

In February the Ryman League appeals committee had handed out the more severe sanction for fielding a player without international clearance.

The Dons had already been expelled from the FA Trophy for utilising midfielder Jermaine Darlington.

Originally they had points taken off for the 11 games in which the former Cardiff player featured for them.

The £400 fine imposed upon the club for breaching three league rules has not been reduced.

The appeal board ruled that, although the Ryman League had not misinterpreted its rules on eligibility and the decision to deduct 18 points was wholly in accordance with those rules, given the specific and unusual circumstances the deduction of 18 points was excessive.


*******
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/m...s_reprieve.php



Ryman League statement after Dons reprieve

The Ryman League has issued this statement after last week's FA ruling to slash AFC Wimbledon's 18 point deduction to just three: The Ryman League acknowledges with surprise the decision of The Football Association in allowing the appeal of AFC Wimbledon and substituting a deduction of 3 points in place of the deduction of 18 points ordered by the League.

The League has deliberately withheld comment on this matter until the outcome of the appeal was known, and now believes that it is appropriate to make a formal statement.

Any decision of the League Board is made in what is believed to be the best interests of all 66 member clubs. This issue is not anything personal against a particular Club but was a decision honestly made by the Board of Appeal of the League.

In this case, the original charge of playing an ineligible player was admitted by AFC Wimbledon which submitted a plea in mitigation to the League Board.

Observers have commented that the action which caused the problem was an honest mistake by a volunteer. While the League does not deny the mistake was honestly made, it does not accept that it was by a volunteer. The Club Secretary is a full time employee of the Club and the League is entitled to expect a comparable level of expertise. The Club through its QC has admitted that the mistake was a "crass error" by the Secretary.

Supporters of the Club have expressed various views, including criticism of the League for not discovering the problem sooner. The League cannot be blamed for this because in completing the registration form for Jermaine Darlington the Club stated "AFC Wimbledon" in response to the enquiry as to the last club the player played for.

The League does not, in any event, have access to the Football Association database and it is therefore only the FA which can discover whether or not a player requires, and has, International Clearance. If, however, the name of Cardiff City FC had been put on the form the League would have been able to enquire of the Club as to why they had answered "n/a" on the form to the question "if last club outside England, has International Transfer Certificate been obtained?".

This demonstrates a weakness in a system over which the League has no control and it is to be hoped that the FA will now implement changes to their own system.

The decision of the FA confirms that the League acted correctly and that it did not misinterpret its own League Rule and that the deduction of 18 points was wholly in accordance with the Rules; The FA also confirmed that the League correctly interpreted the meaning of "shall" in Rule 6.8, which provides that "Any club found to have played an ineligible player in a match shall have any points gained from that match deducted from its record "

It is therefore difficult to understand how the Appeal Board can make such a finding and then vary the decision of the League. The League will now wait to receive the written reasons of the Board before it can comment further on the decision.

Prior to the introduction of Standardised Rules in 2005 the Ryman League did not require a club to have International Clearance to make a player eligible to play in the League. It is understood that the Premier League and The Football League do not currently include this requirement. It is therefore hoped that the FA will now amend Standardised Rules so that this matter cannot occur again.

The League very much regrets that this whole matter has arisen. The Appeal Board of the League could find no reason to deduct anything other than 18 points and notes that the Appeal Board of the FA has been able to find a reason. It was appropriate that the League Board should follow its own Rules and leave any variation to the Football Association. In this way the League can be said to have acted correctly and in the best interests of all member clubs and it is to be hoped that this will now be an end to the matter.

[Risteard]

Ridden rock solid.
The IFA seem worse than our bunch of muppets.

[dcfcsteve]

I'd recommend Larne get in touch with AFC Wimbledon with a view to using (or at least speaking to) the lawyer that they used in their appeal.

Apparently he is very good, and I believe gave his services to AFC for free as well.

The AFC Manager is Ulsterman Dave Anderson, which might help you get a favourable ear as well.

[-lamb-]

cheers for the info steve

[TonyD]

That just sounds crazy. If Larne have clearance in writing from the IFA to play the player there's no way they(the IFA) can get away with this, surely ? That bit about the anonymous letter sounds very murky too. Echoes of the registration crisis in the EL in 2002 when Ollie Byrne of Shels was, according to rumour, tipped off by a Pats director about the late registration of a Pats player.

[Steve Bruce]

the IFA are tw@ts end of.

[LeviathanNI]

They are dicks, and woe betide Irish football on this Island if the two sets of egotistical, useless tools, ever get together!

[Dodge]

Echoes of the registration crisis in the EL in 2002 when Ollie Byrne of Shels was, according to rumour, tipped off by a Pats director about the late registration of a Pats player.

Just on this, there's no alledgedly about it. And it should read former Director, wo then went on to nearly destroy Shamrock Rovers too...

[WeAreRovers]

Just on this, there's no alledgedly about it. And it should read former Director, wo then went on to nearly destroy Shamrock Rovers too...

Let's name names for those who don't know - Alan Duncan.

KOH

[Dodge]

I'd no prroblem with anyone naming him, I just could bring myself to type his name

[Jerry The Saint]

Let's name names for those who don't know - Alan Duncan.

KOH

This was after taking St. Francis out of the league as well, wasn't it?

[Dodge]

Yep. Surprised he hasn't popped up elsewhere tbh. Looking to become some other club's FAI rep

[-lamb-]

i'd give a proper update but i don't really know where to start.

larne have contacted afc wimbledon afaik. larne council unanimously voted to support the club and, along with our local mp, have offered what help they can, appealing to the ifa for justice. support has also come from several senior clubs with the possibilities of fund raising friendlies if needed.

ballymena manager tommy wright this week stated that on the day of gollogley's first match (against ballymena) tommy wright wondered if the player was registered properly and phoned the ifa to inquire. he was told it was "none of his concern".
also this week the ifa faxed the "private and confidential" details of our appeal to a local newspaper in error and the club secretary only knew about it when the newspaper called him and asked him to come and collect his correspondence.
the appeal is tomorrow evening.

claims, counterclaims, vested interests, farce, double dealing, huge cans of worms and lots of name calling. i don't think anyone really knows which way this will go.
bit of a rollercoaster this thing. could well still end up in court.

poor old bangor, facing a long overdue chance of promotion and not had a game since mid-april, not knowing who they play in the playoffs, or even for sure when they will take place.

[kdjaC]

They are dicks, and woe betide Irish football on this Island if the two sets of egotistical, useless tools, ever get together!

Jaysus thats a scary thought.


kdjac

[-lamb-]

tonight the appeal commitee met and after a long discussion were stuck on a 2-1 majority for larne. the decision has to be unanimous so they carried on and finally the verdict was to reinstate larne's points and keep the £8000 fine.

IFA Statement:
"THE IFA Appeals Board met on Friday 4 May to consider an appeal by Larne FC in relation to a decision of an Irish Premier League appointed Commission with respect to the registration of the player Padraig Gollogley.

The Board took into account the detailed submissions and representations of all parties and unanimously agreed that there was no intention on behalf of Mr Gollogley or Larne FC to subvert the rules and regulations of the Irish Premier League but that the relevant registration documentation had been completed incorrectly.

The Board felt that this error could have been recognised at an earlier junction noting however that appropriate failsafe measures were already now being implemented in order to avoid any future reoccurrence.

After hearing all the evidence, and acting in accordance with the powers vested in it under IFA Article 19 (8) (vi), and in order to ensure a just outcome, the Board have decided to uphold the fine of £8,000 but have removed the 16 point deduction imposed by the IPL Commission.

The decisions of the IFA Appeals Board are final and binding on all parties and there shall be no further appeals by any other party in this regard."


an expensive case but larne remain in the premier league.
justice has been done.

WE ARE LARNE

[AnnaghRed]

Its a total farce at the end of the day.

If Larne have written confirmation of Golloglys registration from the IFA then they should have BOTH the points reduction and fine overturned. Not to mention a bit of compo for duress.

Small wonder that I am generally greeted with derision when attempting to coax my peers into watching an IL match.