Holland to go as peace breaks out

Cork football manager Teddy Holland will step aside under the terms of binding arbitration bringing an end to the players strike…

Cork football manager Teddy Holland will step aside under the terms of binding arbitration bringing an end to the players strike in the county.

Holland and his four selectors will step down with a new manager being due to be appointed by a seven-man selection committee which will include two player representatives.

The deal brokered by the chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey, also forbids the Cork players from going on strike again at any time in the future.

'It is with a feeling of sincere regret I now believe the present football management team should step aside and thereby contribute their assistance in resolving this dispute,' said Mulvey in his statement to the selectors.

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Mulvey also ruled that the new Cork manager should choose his own selectors.

"A football manager should be appointed for the 2008 season by the appointments committee in the manner proposed in the Memorandum of Understanding. The manager thus appointed should then pick his own selectors. This should be done as a matter of urgency," said Mulvey.

Earlier, it was confirmed that this weekend's football and hurling league fixtures involving Cork have been postponed by the GAA.

The footballers had been due to face  Dublin at Pairc Ui Rinn tomorrow night, while the hurlers were scheduled to meet Waterford at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Sunday afternoon.

A meeting of the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) next Tuesday is expected to reset the dates for these matches.

In a brief statement released this morning, the GAA confirmed the matches will not take place. "Any further decision in regard to these fixtures will be taken by the CCCC next Tuesday," the statement added.

The players strike has rumbled on in the Rebel County since last October when the county board voted to remove the right of Cork hurling and football managers to appoint their own selectors.

As Holland was subsequently appointed under this system, the Cork footballers, unanimously backed by the county's hurlers, maintained there was no way they would play under his stewardship.

The footballers claimed Holland took the job in full knowledge of their dissatisfaction with the new rule regarding the appointment of team selectors.