Connacht Council reject Mayo’s appeal but eight Carnacon players suspended

Carnacon have been reinstated into the Mayo senior ladies football championship but they will be without eight of their players for four weeks.

After a meeting in Ballyhaunis on Tuesday night, the appeal of Mayo LGFA was rejected. The county had lobbied to the provincial council who intervened on their decision to remove Carnacon from the 2018 club championship. Mayo appealed that action, citing that the club had brought Mayo LGFA into disrepute and that they should be sanctioned as a result. Connacht have upheld their decision, however, to rule that Carnacon, the All-Ireland champions, should be allowed to compete but they did fine the club €500 and suspended the eight players involved with the county panel for four weeks. In a statement, Mayo explained their thinking:

"The clubs were of the opinion that the Carnacon clubs’ actions in withdrawing their players from the senior panel went against the ethos of the LGFA in the manner that it was done and through the subsequent statement released. "The club delegates felt that members of the Carnacon club were complicit in the whole event and had brought Mayo LGFA into disrepute by causing a very public storm through their actions and the harmful statement which followed. "There was a lot of hurt and anger and the clubs felt strongly that Carnacon should be sanctioned for bringing the organisation, their clubs and players into disrepute. "As a County Board Executive, we were compelled to sanction the Carnacon club after an overwhelming majority vote."

This all comes off the back of an explosive Tuesday where the 12 Mayo players who left the panel held a joint press conference to outline some of their grievances with the management team. The Mayo Ladies board subsequently released a 1300-word statement to defend Peter Leahy and hit out at some of the accusations levelled by the players.