THE DUBLIN BRANCH of the Irish Soccer Referee’s Society (ISRS) have cancelled plans to strike for two weeks following “productive” talks with the Football Association of Ireland.
The referees’ Dublin branch last week decided to withdraw their services for a fortnight, citing a lack of confidence in the FAI Disciplinary Control Unit, which stemmed from two cases in which their members “stated that an assault and an attempted assault had taken place”.
The FAI then arranged a meeting with the representative body, and this afternoon confirmed the plans to strike have been cancelled. The FAI say they have agreed to implement “a range of measures” to ensure referees are respected by players, coaches, club officials and supporters.
Irish Soccer Referees Society Vice-President and Dublin Branch secretary Sean Slattery said: “We held very productive talks with the FAI when they listened to our recent concerns and assured us of their commitment to stamping out all abuse of match officials. Following the satisfactory outcome of our talks, our members will be instructed to resume their service to refereeing and the proposed dates for the withdrawal of service have been cancelled. We look forward to continuing our work with the FAI to protect all match officials as they go about their duties.”
“On behalf of the Association and the Grassroots game in Dublin, I want to thank the referees for their engagement in these talks which have produced a positive outcome for all our match officials and players”, added Ger McDermott, who is the Grassroots Director at the FAI. “As we highlighted to the ISRS, the FAI is committed to a zero tolerance policy towards any abuse directed at a match official. We have again assured the ISRS that we will ensure that any individual and/or club who commits such an offence will be sanctioned appropriately.”
Somewhere Phil Kearns is having an absolute meltdown about the unfairness of it all…
Great to see Jaguares win, hope they can follow up next week.
Argentina are 50-1 for the world cup! Insane odds given how well the Jaguares are going. Plus they always underperform in the Rugby Championship cos of the distances they have to travel. Given Ireland are 5-1, this seems pretty long for the Argies.
@Farzad Saadat: Pool C will see a big faller at the 1st. France, England and Argentina will be interesting. You’d think France could be the one to miss out but they’ve been ruthless with their squad selection, brought in O’Gara and you only have to look at 2011 when they had no chance and made the final. England could find themselves in a similar fate to 2015, after a great start under Jones they had an awful run of loses. Argentina always peak at world cup time. Exciting!
@RabidHorizon: Did they bring in O’Gara in the end? I thought that was all just rumours in the end
@Eddie Hekenui: No they didn’t in the end
@Ciaran Twomey: Cheers. Thought I might’ve missed the news he’d taken a role with them.
@Farzad Saadat: Madness considering they have knocked us out of 3 of the last 5 RWCs.
@RabidHorizon: they didn’t bring in O’Gara
@RabidHorizon: France brought in much better coaches than O’Gara, they should get a real boost – Labit and Galthié – they picked the right squad, too. I think England could be the team to miss out..
Brumbies should never have made it to a semi. Awful team but get lucky because of how weak their conference is.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL:
Aussie Rugby is in a bad place right now.
Unreal for the sport!! Makes the competition a whole lot more competitive! Will be interesting to see how far Argentina go at the WC.
@Aaron Tynan: Further than us, I fear.
@Bluepoolroad: draw kinder to them I think than Ireland – SA or NZ is a tough 1/4
The second semi just finished. Cracking game. 30-26 crusaders.
That jaguares kit is lovely
@Eoin Murphy: i wonder where one could buy it?
@Tony Stack: https://www.elverys.ie/elverys/en/search?text=jaguares
Great. When Argentina played in the November series against Ireland. Which i went too. It was the Jaguares team.
Jags play flat and pass wonderfully, it’s great to watch. The crowd was brilliant too.
I think the Crusaders will have too much for them at home, but I’d love to see the Jags win it.
Where’s the final taking place?
@Bluepoolroad: crusaders ground
@Bluepoolroad: Crusaders home stadium in Christchurch, super rugby needs to start playing them in neutral venues, even if it’s in the higher ranked clubs home country. Home stadium advantage is a bit much for a final.
@Con Al: The problem is distances. Say Cape Town was this year’s venue, how many Jaguares and Crusaders supporters are going to make it at a weeks notice? Stadium would be near empty. At least in the current system, one set of supporters see the final and home advantage is based on merit earned during the season. Not perfect, but understandable system