Women's Football/Mayo jersey row: A row over jerseys is set to cost the Mayo woman's football team, who won the All-Ireland football final last month, a whopping €22,000 in penalties.
The Mayo County Board directly flouted a ruling that they wear O'Neill's kit in the championship decider against Dublin at Croke Park. They wore Azzurri gear instead which put them on a collision course with Cumann Peil Gael na mBan, the game's ruling authority.
That act of disobedience cost them €20,000 when the Central Council of Cumann Peil na Mban met in Tullamore on Wednesday night. A fine of €2,000 was also imposed for a breach of kit rules in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Galway in early September. The team wore O'Neill's shirts but blotted out the logo.
The reaction in Mayo to the fines has been one of "amazement". "We broke our backs in the last few years winning four All-Irelands out of five and this is the thanks we get," said one team official, who did not wish to be named.
The Mayo County Board, meanwhile, hinted that they may appeal the penalties in the courts.
"We have been advised by our legal representatives to let them deal with it as it is now a legal issue," a spokesperson for the board said yesterday.
Cumann Peil na Mban had made a ruling that intercounty players wear O'Neill's gear in the latter stages of the championship. But the Mayo County Board agreed their own kit deal with Azzurri, the Waterford-based jersey manufacturing company.
Confirming the €22,000 fines yesterday, Helen O'Rourke, chief executive of Cumann Peil na Mban, said the Mayo County Board have 13 weeks to pay the fines. O'Rourke said that Central Council had made a ruling earlier this year that intercounty teams wear O'Neill's kit in the latter stages of the championship.
"The scale of the fines indicate how seriously the Central Council views the matter," O'Rourke said. "We are doing our best to promote the sport but we have to have rules and a governing body."
Mayo are understood to have signed a three-year deal with Azzurri before the O'Neill's contract with Cumann Peil na mBan came into existence and say that they felt legally obliged to honour that commitment.
