Reports: GAA President Nickey Brennan has denied a link exists between the retrospective calling of Paddy Campbell and Matty Forde before the Central Disciplinary Committee (CDC) after video evidence caught both players in alleged acts of foul play.
Despite indications last week from the CDC chairman, John O'Reilly, that Campbell had no case to answer, the Donegal board received notice on Tuesday requesting Campbell's presence next Wednesday to answer for a blow to Derry's Enda Muldoon in the Ulster semi-final on June 18th.
Muldoon received a four-week suspension for retaliating, missed last weekend's second-round qualifier victory over Kildare and will also miss Saturday's third-round qualifier against Longford.
"There is no connection whatsoever with the Matty Forde incident," said Brennan. "The CDC had to be sure of their ground here. Matty Forde is coming up tonight, Paddy Campbell is coming up next Wednesday.
"It's a total coincidence that they are coming up at this time."
In fact, Forde's case has been postponed until tomorrow night because he cannot attend tonight. Wexford play Fermanagh in their third-round qualifier this Saturday.
Brennan has accepted that the four-and-a-half-week delay in dealing with Campbell is unacceptable and unfair on the Donegal full back.
"I wouldn't disagree with that," he said. "We have inherited a system, but there are areas that have to be tidied up. We have to address that better and I think we can do that within the existing rules.
"We need to expedite these cases a lot quicker, but we have to be careful to do so within the correct rules. But bear in mind these people are amateurs who also have a job to do and it is the holiday period. There are constraints within the system.
"Comparing (the GAA) to other organisations is not fair as they have full-time people sitting in on disciplinary matters and they can make decisions quicker."
It is, nevertheless, perplexing that Campbell's case was not heard before last Sunday's Ulster final. Campbell had even publicly apologised to Muldoon, an apparent acknowledgment he had done wrong.
"We never said it was put to bed," continued Brennan. "I won't deny that maybe it's not terribly satisfactory that it has taken so long, but there was a sequence of events that had to be gone through. Other matters have been dealt with earlier, but the important thing is we felt the matter had to be dealt with.
"The committee had a lot of discussions with how they would deal with the matter because whether we like it or not we are aware that many of these cases end up at DRA (Disputes Resolution Authority) so we want to make sure of our ground."
Donegal board chairman Charlie O'Donnell expressed dissatisfaction with the delay in calling Campbell: "We got an email yesterday (Tuesday) and we immediately requested a personal hearing. The match was on June 18th so it should have been dealt with before next week."
A subcommittee of the CDC is designated to analyse video footage and report back to the main committee. None of the subcommittee are allowed involvement in the players' hearings.
The CDC also indicated they intend to meet twice weekly for the duration of the championship, thus abandoning the once-a-fortnight routine employed up to now.
