TROUBLE BREWING

GAA referees up in arms over appointment

THERE hasn’t been a ball of any kind thrown in on the playing pitches of Wicklow in 2021 yet but already there is a storm brewing between a section of GAA referees and County Chairman Martin Fitzgerald over the appointment of Fintan Fanning as the new referee administrator in place of Eddie Leonard.

An email is reportedly being prepared to be sent to the county secretary demanding answers as to why Eddie Leonard was moved over to the CCC committee after two years in the job as referee administrator with 95 per cent of referees in the county said to be in favour of Leonard remaining in place.

Martin Fitzgerald has said that the change was made to ensure that no active referee was involved in the selecting of referees for games and because of complaints made to him in 2020.

Speaking to the Wicklow and Bray People newspapers, Eddie Leonard said that he is ‘disappointed’ with being removed from the position in which he felt he had fulfilled his role to the best of his ability.

‘I’m disappointed. I did the job for two years and in that time we trained up 16 new referees and I thought I was doing the job well. I had a good rapport with all the clubs in Wicklow and I didn’t feel there was any need for a change,’ he said.

There were also suggestions that Wicklow County Chairman Martin Fitzgerald had received complaints from five or six ‘top’ referees regarding the handling of the appointment of referees in 2020 but, according to Eddie Leonard, no complaints were brought to his attention.

‘That was never brought to my attention. Any person with an issue should come to the referee administrator and not somewhere else,’ he added.

‘I don’t see a need for it (the change in referee administrator), but they (County Board) seem to think that there’s a need for it.

‘I’m disappointed to be taken out of the role. The reasons I’ve been given don’t add up. The Chairman has the privilege of changing sub-committees but the old saying ‘why change something that isn’t broken’ is relevant here,’ he said.

Spokesperson for the referees’ committee in Wicklow Eugene O’Brien said that the vast majority of referees were very angry about the development and the manner in which it was handled by county management.

‘The majority of the referees are disgusted with the treatment of Eddie Leonard, and Kieron Kenny as well. Eddie has been in the job for two years and Kieron Kenny has handled juvenile games appointments since 2016 and he hasn’t even been officially notified that he is no longer doing that job,’ said O’Brien.

‘It’s not acceptable the way that this has been done,’ added the Aughrim official. ‘But nobody will say anything and it will get brushed under the carpet like always. Referees are treated like dirt in this county but if you’ve no referees, you’ve no games,’ he added before stating that his remarks were not a cut at anybody in particular but more in protest at the manner in which the action was taken.

‘They (the County Board) say they can pick whoever they want. Fair enough, but don’t do it the way they did. We need answers as to why this has happened. I’m 20 years refereeing but this is crazy stuff. I don’t know where it came out of. We want the lads reinstated,’ he added before suggesting that further acton would not be beyond the bounds of possibility if decisive action was not taken to resolve the issue.

There were also claims that the referee WhatsApp group was discontinued a few weeks ago and a new one created due to fears of information being leaked.

However, County Chairman Martin Fitzgerald says that the changing of the committee to be populated by people who are not active referees is to avoid any potential conflicts of interest in the future and that he is just bringing Wicklow in line with other counties in Leinster in that regard.

‘First of all, I’ve put four people in place (Fintan Fanning, Paul Wilson, Chris O’Connor and Damien Byrne) who are not referees and that’s the way it’s done in most other counties in Leinster, I’ve spoken to other officials in other counties and that’s how they do it.

‘I’ve put four very fair-minded people in place and none of them are referees, so there are no conflicts of interest, and that’s the way it is in most other counties.

‘Also, in the last year I’ve had remarks made to me that referees weren’t happy for whatever reasons so this way there are no conflicts of interest,’ he said.

When asked to respond to a demand by Eugene O’Brien on behalf of a section of referees in the county that Eddie Leonard and Kieron Kenny be reinstated to their roles, Martin Fitzgerald said the decision had already been made.

‘We’ve made the change and that’s the way we’re going. It has nothing to do with Eddie. Eddie’s system was very, very good, everything he did was very good. It’s just a change. I’ve also changed a number of other committees. Change is good. There’s a new chairman on the CCC and there’s a new chairman on Hearings,’ he said.

In response to criticism about the failure to inform Kieron Kenny that he was no longer in his position Martin Fitzgerald said that he had informed Eddie Leonard of the changes and had assumed the St Patrick’s official would inform the rest of the committee members.

‘I didn’t ring anyone other than Eddie Leonard because he was the referee administrator,’ he said.

Martin Fitzgerald said he wasn’t aware of any leaking of information from a WhatsApp group to county executives and that no referee had contacted him regarding any information exchanged on any referee WhatsApp group.

Asked if he was concerned about the situation getting out of hand or ‘dirty’ as it had been described, he said he couldn’t see why it would,

‘I don’t see why it should get dirty. In all fairness, Eddie is moved on to the CCC,’ he added.