It would have been hard to see it coming but when Kildare were drawn first from the bowl in yesterday morning’s draw for the third round of the All Ireland Football Qualifiers, it was to spark an enormous row.
Home advantage was to be given to the team drawn first unless that was a team from Division Three or Four drawn away in which the tie would be switched to give the ‘lesser’ county something of an advantage.
The way the draw worked out Leitrim were drawn to host Monaghan and will do so at their 15,000 capacity Sean MacDiarmada Park in Carrick on Shannon.
Armagh were drawn away to Clare but that switch is made as they were in Division 3 last season and that game will take place at the 18,000 Capacity Athletic Grounds in Armagh City.
The problems arose with the first and last games drawn out by GAA President John Horan live on RTÉ Radio One’s Good Morning Ireland.
Cavan’s Kingspan Breffni Stadium is under development at present and unable to host the all Ulster clash while Kildare’s home ground of St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge is the smallest of the potential venues with a capacity of only 9,200.
Both Counties were given the option to put forward alternative ‘home’ venues and while Cavan initially suggested Enniskillen, Kildare made clear they wanted to stage the game in Newbridge and began making preparations.
They got clearance from local Gardaí that they would be able to accommodate a sell out all ticket crowd, which would reduce the capacity further and asked that the game be staged no earlier than 7 PM so as to avoid further congestion with the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby taking place at The Curragh.
They advised this to the Central Competitions Control Committee of the GAA who were meeting yesterday morning to determine the final times and venues for the games as is always the case.
The clock was ticking with TV waiting in the wings as well as Sky have the right to broadcast two matches this weekend at 5 PM and 7 PM on Saturday.
The two games where the venue was going to cause a potential problem were the two most likely to appeal to the broadcaster.
The Committee took a view that given a likely 12,000 traveling support base from Mayo as well as a 6,000 minimum home support that there would be Health and Safety concerns with staging the game in Newbridge and instead decided to propose a switch to a doubleheader in Croke Park.
That was accepted by Cavan but not by Kildare who issued a statement last night saying that “we are making it clear that we will not play this game in Croke Park.”
The GAA has said that if this is the case that the game will be forfeit but that it has been fixed for Croke Park on health and safety grounds and that this will not be changed.
As of this morning, we are in a stalemate with both sides stating that they will not be moved. There is precedent already this season for switches being imposed on the same grounds with Wicklow playing at home to Dublin in the Leinster Championship in Portlaoise as opposed to Aughrim and Waterford playing their home games at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick as opposed to Walsh Park in Waterford.
Both those grounds have a bigger capacity than Newbridge but not big enough to handle the crowds for those bigger matches.
There is, of course, no divine right to be able to attend a match and games are sold out on a regular basis with last weekend’s Ulster Final at Clones and next Sunday’s Munster Hurling Final in Thurles being in that boat but both did or will accommodate crowds of 28,000 and 46,000 respectively.
The issue has been conflated into a bigger question over whether Kildare would be given a home advantage game if they were to make it to the Quarter Final Round or the Super 8’s, and the likelihood is that this would also be denied based on the limited capacity at St Conleth’s Park as well.
The Gaelic Players Association has rowed in with a statement saying the game should take place at Newbridge, but did not suggest, as some are claiming, that this could be backed by a threat for players not to take part in any of this weekend’s qualifiers.
This issue will have phone lines and persuasive abilities working overtime throughout today. It appears a case of an immovable object against an irresistible force.
The principle of home advantage for Kildare is right to defend and state a strong case for. The reality though is that once the larger supporter base of Mayo became the opposition that pragmatism would take a higher order and that is what appears to be the case.
It would be an awful shame for the players and supporters, as well as the GAA, if Kildare were to cede their place in the Championship.
The clock is ticking ever faster now on how this can be resolved.
