Longford v Donegal, or Donegal v Longford?

Team News: Uncertainty now surrounds Sunday's meeting of Longford and Donegal in the Allianz Football League after the GAA were…

Team News: Uncertainty now surrounds Sunday's meeting of Longford and Donegal in the Allianz Football League after the GAA were last night forced to make a late amendment to the fixture.

Although the Division Two A tie had been announced on Monday as a home game for Donegal and set for Ballybofey, Longford were claiming they were entitled to a home venue. After revisiting the matter yesterday the GAA have now refixed the tie for Pearse Park, Longford, but in the meantime Donegal are set to discuss their options on the matter, claiming they too are entitled to the home venue.

The Donegal county executive is likely to meet later today to explore their options, which could include calling on the Disputes Resolution Authority to intervene.

However, in a statement issued last night, the GAA explained the reasons behind the confusion, which was due to the fact that the programme drawn up by the Games Administration Committee (GAC) was not the programme presented to the Ard Chomhairle for final approval at its meeting on December 10th of last year.

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It leaves Donegal set to play five of their seven league games on the road, including the costly trip to London.

Earlier yesterday, Longford had expressed their anger when the away fixture was announced on Monday - as 10 of their senior panel were also involved in Saturday's Leinster under-21 clash with Carlow.

"For the last three league campaigns we have had four away matches," said Longford chairman Martin Skelly, "and we believed we were due four home matches this year. All of our preparations were up in the air when the fixtures came out on Monday. If we had known we were due to travel to Ballybofey, we might have tried to play the under-21 game on Friday night."

Meanwhile, the Gaelic Players Association have intervened in the fiasco surrounding last Saturday's meeting of Tyrone and Cavan in the Allianz Hurling League.

Describing the treatment of both counties as "shocking", the GPA has promised their own investigation, while seeking an apology from those concerned with hosting the fixture.

Both the Tyrone and Cavan hurling squads brought the matter to the GPA yesterday, prompting a statement outlining the perplexing chain of events. Their Division Three B game was scheduled for Carrickmore in Tyrone on Saturday, but when the Tyrone players arrived they were told the main pitch was closed and that an Ulster League club football match was going ahead on the training pitch.

The squad were instead requested to travel to the Greencastle GAA grounds, but when they arrived there they were ordered to return to Carrickmore as the referee was insisting the game be played at the original venue in accordance with the fixture.

While the main pitch at Carrickmore was then re-opened, the club football match was given preference and the county hurlers were instructed to play their game with Cavan on the training pitch.

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics