DCU likely losers as bans lifted

The four intercounty footballers at the centre of a controversy over their playing for DCU at the end of last year are unlikely to be eligible for the upcoming Sigerson Cup even though they had their 12-week suspensions lifted by the GAA's Central Appeals Committee (CAC) on Tuesday night.

Ross Munnelly (Laois), Dessie Dolan (Westmeath), Shane Ryan (Dublin) and Diarmuid Kinsella (Wexford) were judged by the Comhairle Árdoideachais (the CA, which governs higher education games) to have been ineligible to represent DCU in a league match at the end of last year and all incurred the mandatory suspension.

The suspension was based on the post-graduate courses for which the players were registered being part-time and therefore not recognisable for the purposes of playing in higher education competitions.

CAC upheld the players' appeals on a technicality. A drafting error in the article of the constitution and bylaws of the CA, dealing with the powers and functions of the Comhairle Feidhmiúcháin (CF, administrative committee), led to the suspensions being lifted.

Former Munster chair Christy Cooney chaired Tuesday's CAC. "Basically the higher education body drew up a new set of rules, which were approved by the GAA's Management Committee on September 30th. There was a technical error in the constitution and certain powers devolved to the CF to deal with discipline were confused with those of the CA," he said.

The problem for DCU is that the CAC dealt only with the technicality in order to lift the suspensions and didn't disturb the original determination of the higher education body in relation to the players' eligibility. This means that, were the players to play again for DCU, they would be open to the same charge that led to the bans.

"We didn't address any other issues apart from the technicality," said Cooney. "I believe that the CA will now amend their constitution and ask Management and Central Council to endorse the change on the grounds that it is only a technical correction."

Paddy Collins, the Westmeath county secretary, made the technical arguments for the players, including his own county's Dessie Dolan. An initial case that the constitution couldn't come into force for this year as the academic year runs from September to August and the rules were only endorsed at the end of September wasn't accepted because competitions hadn't started at that stage.

Having succeeded with the other technicality, Collins believes that the players will not be eligible for further matches with DCU. "My advice to Dessie Dolan is not to play. Any player who has received a determination saying that they're not eligible would be foolish in my view to play without further clarification."

This means that DCU will probably have to do without the four players for the Sigerson Cup, which the university is hosting next month on its Glasnevin campus. It also means the players will be available for their counties and all except Wexford are scheduled to play in the O'Byrne Cup or Shield at the weekend.

Had they not been suspended the four players would have been playing for DCU in the matches to date, as the third-level institutions have priority pick on intercounty players.

Although they lost the hearing the CA are likely to be happy with the outcome. The suspensions flagged their new stringent policy in relation to player eligibility without the players having to serve any meaningful term off the field and their original determination has not been overruled.