FIVE soccer fans who claim they were injured in a riot at the abandoned Ireland England soccer match in February last year are seeking compensation totalling £150,000 from the FAI.
Their cases were mentioned before Judge Patrick Smith in Dublin Circuit Civil Court yesterday when the FAI succeeded in having the English FA, the Garda and the Attorney General joined as co defendants.
Mr Hugh Mohan, counsel for the FAI, had sought to have the FA Ltd and the State joined as third parties in all five actions and Mr George Birmingham, counsel for the plaintiffs, consented to their being joined as codefendants.
The five claims are the first to come up before the Circuit Court. It heard they were the forerunners of other cases claiming compensation for injuries allegedly caused through FAI negligence.
All the plaintiffs are claiming £30,000 damages for personal injuries they allege were caused during the Lansdowne Road match on February 15th last year. The match was abandoned when trouble broke out in the crowd.
In an affidavit read to Judge Smith, the former FAI chief executive, Mr Sean Connolly, claimed the FAI was entitled to rely upon the professional expertise of, the Garda in its recommendations and for it to have ensured that an adequate number of gardai were available for security duty at the match.
He said the arrangement on ticket selling agreed with the FA was that all of its quota would be allocated to English soccer fans exclusively through the English Travel Club.
He said of the 1,700 tickets available to the English Travel Club, some had leaked into the wrong hands through the club.
The claims are unlikely to come up for hearing until 1997 due to the backlog of cases in the Circuit Court.
The actions have been brought by Mr Stephen O'Reilly, Almount Hall, Stoney Road, Dundrum, Dublin; Mr Colin Culliton, Glenora, Fassaroe, Bray, Co Wicklow; Mr Joseph Leonard, The Lawn, Woodbrook, Bray; Mr Tristam McCabe, Laragh, Killiney Avenue, Killiney, Co Dublin, and Mr Brian Doody, Orpen Green, Blackrock, Co Dublin.