A decision on the venue for the Ulster SFC quarter-final between Antrim and Armagh was deferred at an Ulster CCC meeting on Tuesday night.
At the meeting, Antrim nominated Corrigan Park as their home venue for the encounter but following discussions it was agreed that provincial officials would hold further talks with the Saffrons to try resolve the impasse.
The venue for the Ulster quarter-final has sparked controversy after Ulster GAA informed the Antrim County Board that because of capacity issues at Corrigan Park the game would have to be played at a neutral venue, despite Antrim being due to have home advantage.
Corrigan Park has a capacity limit of 4,000 but with Armagh having over 3,000 season-ticket holders the provincial council deemed the Belfast venue would not be able to host the April 13th fixture.
In a statement earlier this month, Ulster GAA said: “Corrigan Park has a certified capacity of 4,000. The minimum number of tickets required to accommodate this fixture (including players charter, match officials, multi-sponsors, media, season tickets, etc) will exceed the venue capacity.
“Therefore, Corrigan Park does not meet the required health and safety standard to accommodate this fixture.
“Ulster GAA met with Antrim GAA officials Antrim GAA officials last month to review the situation in detail, and those discussions remain ongoing.”
With the threat of losing home advantage looming, Antrim manager Andy McEntee and his players dug in and insisted they would only play the game at Corrigan Park.
Antrim forward Paddy McBride told BBC NI: “We want to play on our own pitch when we have a home game. It sounds so simple – you have a home match you play at home.
“We said we sacrifice too much to lie down. If it’s not going to be where it’s meant to be, then we’ll not play it. It’s one we all agreed with, it wasn’t deliberated on, it wasn’t debated, we just said this is what we’re standing for and we’re sticking with it.”
