Donegal’s Jim McGuinness given eight-week suspension for fielding ineligible player

Donegal are hopeful the eight-week suspension proposed on their senior football manager Jim McGuinness, for playing an ineligible player in last Wednesday’s McKenna Cup win over Armagh, will not be imposed.

The ban would see McGuinness miss most of Donegal’s National Football League campaign.

Finbarr Roarty was only 17 when he lined out in Donegal’s McKenna Cup win over Armagh in Ballybofey last Wednesday night and so is ineligible to play senior intercounty football this season.

Roarty, who is from the same club as McGuinness – Naomh Conaill, has since turned 18 but the rulebook states a player must be 18 before January 1st of that calendar year to play.

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Roarty has been recommended for a two-week ban but the eight-week suspension for McGuinness is the most concerning of the disciplinary penalties delivered to Donegal by the Ulster Council’s Competitions Control Committee on Monday.

Donegal officials met on Monday night to discuss their response and they are expected to fully support McGuinness on the matter as there is a belief the fielding of an ineligible player against Armagh was a genuine mistake, and that an eight-week penalty does not fit the crime.

McGuinness has been singled out for suspension because he is deemed to be the “person in charge of the team in which the breach was committed”.

The matter could yet find its way to the Central Appeals Committee at national level for review, which would then create the possibility for Central Council to recommend the suspension be quashed.

Donegal have also forfeited the points from the McKenna Cup win over Armagh, but as the Orchard County did not lodge an objection to the outcome of the game that result has been declared null and void, meaning Kieran McGeeney’s men do not receive the points.

The loss of McKenna Cup points is the least of Donegal’s concerns though as this setback could derail much of their Division Two league campaign.

One of Donegal’s main objectives in the first part of the season is to get promotion to Division One, but the absence of McGuinness for eight weeks would see him miss the first five rounds of the National League – against Cork, Cavan, Fermanagh, Armagh and Louth.

McGuinness is only a matter of weeks back in the role as Donegal manager having returned to manage his native county for a second stint. He led Donegal to All-Ireland glory in 2012.

Donegal have played just two McKenna games since his return – beating both Armagh and Tyrone.

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