No rule and probably no appetite to eject Kenmare District from Championship
THE Kenmare District football team have avoided being expelled from this year’s county senior football championship despite failing to field a team for their first round fixture against Dingle, scheduled for Dingle last Saturday.
Since informing the County Committee early on Saturday that the divisional side would not be able to field a team there has been plenty of speculation as to what would be the fall-out from such a serious decision.
Between Saturday’s forfeiture of the match and Monday night’s investigation and findings of a meeting of the Competitions Control Committee (CCC) there was plenty of speculation about what could and would happen to the Kenmare District Board and team for failing to fulfil the fixture.
As is general policy with regard to sanctions proposed by the Competitions Control Committee, the decision of the CCC’s deliberations have not been made public. Instead the CCC’s proposed sanction has been put to the Kenmare District Board and they can either accept the sanction of request a hearing with the Central Hearings Committee (CHC).
The sanction proposed is thought to be a monetary fine and The Kerryman has learned that there was no other option open to the CCC other than to impose a fine.
Under the current rules of the county championship the CCC did not have the power to expel Kenmare District from the competition – even if they wanted to, though it’s not clear if there was an appetite to do that.
As the first round of the county championship affords the losers a second game in the losers round, the first round is effectively treated as a league. Therefore Kenmare District effectively conceded the game – for which they can be fined – but they are still entitled to take their place in the Losers Round, in which they have been drawn against defending champions Dr Crokes.
With a special committee set up to conduct a root and branch review of the county championship – which is due to publish its report later in the year – Kenmare District’s failure to fulfil this fixture is sure to now be a central part of that review.