Crisis knocks Louth out of leagues

Louth will not complete this year's National Leagues programme. Saturday's Central Council meeting at Croke Park voted to exclude the county from the competitions. Consideration of the foot-and-mouth outbreak was the most urgent matter on the agenda and, as well as taking action in relation to inter-county activity, the meeting also discussed this year's annual Congress scheduled for the weekend after next.

Louth will not be the only county affected, as the Department of Agriculture exclusion zone extends into areas of south Down and south Armagh. Players within the exclusion zone will not be allowed to train until the quarantine period of 30 days - since the outbreak in north Louth - has elapsed. Down's Micheal Magill is from Warrenpoint, which is inside the zone, as is Drumintee, home club of Armagh's Cathal and Aidan O'Rourke.

There was some mitigation for Louth. The Games Administration Committee will look at ways of settling league placings later in the year, rather than relegating the county because it wasn't in a position to discharge its fixtures.

And Leinster Council chairman Seamus Aldridge responded sympathetically to a request from Louth delegate Pat Hamilton, who asked GAA president Sean McCague if the championship first round match against Longford at the beginning of May might be postponed. McCague said that it was a matter for the provincial council.

In relation to Congress, the decision was taken to proceed with the scheduled date of April 6th-7th although, according to one GAA source, "any escalation and it won't take much to tip it over the edge".

If Congress does go ahead on Friday week, the British delegates won't be in attendance, but they will be allowed to appoint proxies up to the strength of their official delegation. Of Louth's five delegates, four are outside the exclusion zone and will travel. A similar exemption isn't available for British delegates from outside exclusion zones, as travel restrictions in Britain haven't been as tight as here over the past month.

It was also decided that, in the event of Congress not going ahead, a special meeting of Central Council would have to take place to decide on motions necessary in an emergency context. This echoes motion 10 on the Congress clar which enables Central Council to take decisions necessary for the completion of the games schedule in 2001.

Essentially, this is to cover a situation where the crisis deepens to the extent that the dropping of the new football championship format becomes a live issue. The GAA's Management Committee will decide whether Congress can go ahead in the light of any further outbreaks.

Other features of the desire to expedite the revised fixtures schedule raised on Saturday included the approval of extra-time being used in National League play-offs, under-21 football All-Ireland matches and schools and colleges competitions.

If two 15-minute periods of extra-time fail to resolve the result, a further two periods of five minutes will be played.

That revised schedule, finalised by the GAC last week, was also approved by Central Council. Under its provisions, the National Leagues recommence next weekend, with the football final on April 29th and the hurling equivalent a week later.

Some counties are understood to have expressed unease about the prospect of playing matches in Louth or Armagh, and in response the GAA made it clear that counties who refused to travel would forfeit the points but would not be punished any further. Similarly, any county who objected to the visit of another team could forfeit the points if they wished.

McCague also revealed that the GAA hoped to conclude a renewal of the Bank of Ireland football sponsorship by the start of the championship. In answer to a query about the new child protection guidelines, the GAA said that a revised text of the association's guidelines had just been returned by senior counsel and would be ready for Congress.

Proposals for a substitution zone were accepted, as was the plan to control replacements by means of electronic boards. These boards - familiar from soccer matches - will be kept at major grounds, with smaller venues presumably to be thrown back on their ingenuity.

Finally, an altercation between Antrim delegate Joe O'Boyle and Jarlath Burns, chairman of the Players Committee, drew the intervention of the president.

O'Boyle has complained that Burns, in his official capacity, had met the Antrim county players without going through the county board. McCague responded firmly that Burns was entitled to liaise with players when he wished; that that was the nature of his appointment.