Donegal club forced to forfeit all games for next 8 weeks because of fundraiser

Naomh Colmcille hosted a fundraising tournament in February.

A former club player and coach Paul Dillon is in the middle of a battle with Motor Neurone Disease and in order to help his cause, the club held a blitz type competition, which was organised by a local fundraising organisation. The tournament went down well, with over €85,000 raised for the cause but on the back of Donegal GAA being made aware of its occurrence last week, the Naomh Colmcille club now find themselves in hot water. A probe was subsequently launched by the Donegal CCC and the Donegal Sport Hub and the Inishowen Independent report that the club was soon hit with an eight week ban from adult competition as a result of the staging of 'unauthorised' event. This 'unauthorised' term comes under rule 6.40 of the GAA's official guide, which states that clubs will be penalised €500 and banned for eight weeks from all adult competitions if they hold or organise a tournament without the GAA's permission. We contacted Naomh Colmcille for their take on the developments but the north Donegal club will be making no comment with an appeal ongoing. A hearing is set to take place in the near future regarding the developments, but as it stands, the club will be unable to take part in any of their adult league games over the next eight weeks and will have to forfeit them. https://twitter.com/EamonMcGee/status/1120643632606978048