Referees taken to task on conflict of interest

A strongly worded motion from the Cullion club has called on GAA referees in the county to excuse themselves from games where there is a conflict of interest at play.

Delegate, Dermot Broughan proposed the motion to the recent county convention, suggesting conflict of interest is a key issue and referees need to be alert to it.

“This is in no way trying to have an issue with referees. Cullion are very supportive of referees; we have three referees operating at adult level and three at underage, camogie and hurling. But the people who appoint referees may not be aware that a referee has a conflict of interest,” he said.

“It’s like in any business - I work in an organisation where I make a decision, I have to sign a document to say I don’t have a conflict of interest. All we are saying is, if a referee is aware of a conflict of interest, he or she would excuse themselves from that game.”

Frank Mescall said the sentiments of the motion are in place already, but opinions differ when it comes to conflict of interest.

“It is very subjective, what is a conflict of interest,” he said. “To you, Cullion, it may be a conflict of interest; to the referee it definitely would not be. And we have had so many conflicts of interest pointed out to us that if we were to adhere to them all, we would have no referee refereeing a championship game at all. I could give you so many high profile examples down the years,” he said.

“We agree 100% with it: the referee will excuse himself. We have had so many different ones where the referee has excused himself from doing games because of a multitude of conflicts of interest. Maybe concentrating on the conflict word.”

Mr Broughan said it’s a timely reminder for all referees.

“They should let it be known to whoever is appointing them,” he added. There was no other speaker on the motion.