Kildare are right to stand up for fairness

By the time you read this, an impasse could well have been reached In the developing debacle surrounding home advantage being taken away from Kildare for this Saturday's All Ireland Football Qualifier against Mayo.

Hopefully it will be in favor of Kildare getting the home advantage they are entitled to in Newbridge, under the rules of the draw from where they were first out of the bowl.

If there isn't and Kildare carry out their threat not field at Croke Park on Saturday, it would be a seminal moment in the direction the GAA is going with a county fighting back against an unfairness imposed on them by Croke Park who changed the rules of the competition to suit them when potential lost revenue was at stake.

If Kildare carry out their threat and Mayo end up getting a walkover, the reputational damage on the GAA will be a lot more than the money made at Croke Park on Saturday, particularly at a time when more and more people are talking of a disconnect between officialdom and everyone else

While Mayo fans are fanatical in how they follow their team, and we saw that at first hand in Thurles last Saturday, their large following, or indeed any following of an away support, should not determine whether a county is entitled to keep their home advantage for a big championship game. If it where Tipperary going to St Conleth's Park next Saturday, there wouldn't be an issue.

 

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