GAA players ‘robbing each other to pay for drugs’

STATS OF THE DAY Substance use disorders globally

DRUG addiction is so rampant in GAA clubs across the country that some players are stealing from their teammates, a top referee has claimed.

Alan Kissane, who is also a Garda Inspector and a national advisor to Croke Park for football, said he has seen “behavioral issues of fellas on the field who I know personally have been taking drugs” off it.

He said: “I know because through the [Garda] job, I’ve either been present when they’ve been caught or I’ve seen they’ve been caught and I see the behaviour on the field change.”

He said there have been too many players who’ve had promising careers, only to “fritter away from the scene”, with Kissane claiming to have seen in certain cases some years later that the player has been “caught with drugs” and has wound up in court.

The Tipperary man, who is a member of Dunhill GAA in Co Waterford, was speaking at the launch of an anti-narcotics drive within Waterford GAA clubs.

The programme has already been rolled out in Carlow and Kilkenny in recent months and sees gardaí and family resource groups visit individual clubs to speak to members on the use of drugs.

Phone

Kissane said he was aware of instances where there have been players committing “thefts from dressing rooms” of a mobile phone or small sums of money to pay for their cocaine habit.

“We educate the youngsters and try keep them away from it,” he said, adding that he has come across some players through emergency services on the evening after a game “saying they’re going to kill themselves”.