THE English Football Association will dispute the findings of the Finlay inquiry into the riots at Lansdowne Road during the Ireland England soccer international in 1995, a court has been told.
Five Irish soccer fans are collectively seeking up to £150,000 damages from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) for injuries they received during the February 15th match, which was abandoned when rioting broke out on two tiers in the West Stand.
Mr Hugh Mohan, counsel for the FAI, told Judge Esmonde Smyth that the English Football Association (FA), Ireland and the Garda Commissioner had been joined in the action as co defendants. He said the trial, which opens in the Circuit Civil Court on February 18th, could last for up to a month.
Mr George Birmingham, counsel for the injured fans, said his clients had all bought 10 year tickets to Ireland's international matches. They claim they were seated among hooligan elements of English supporters and had to run a gauntlet of punches and kicks as they tried to escape from the stand. Rioting had broken out after Wolverhampton's David Kelly had scored a goal for Ireland.
Mr Birmingham, instructed by Lavelle Coleman, solicitors, was granted orders against the defendants directing discovery of documents relating to ticket sales and security plans for the game.
When Mr Mohan sought a court order directing the English FA to answer a list of inquiries prepared on the information contained in the Finlay report, Mr Mel Christle, counsel for the FA, objected.
Mr Christle told the court his clients would not be accepting as evidence the findings of former Chief Justice Mr Thomas Finlay in his Government appointed public inquiry into the riots.
He said the FA had not been a party to the inquiry and none of its officials had provided evidence before it. He told Judge Smyth the FA would be disputing the conclusions of the report.
Judge Smyth adjourned Mr Mohan's application for a week to allow the FA to reply voluntarily to questions already posed by the FAI. Mr Declan Doyle, counsel for the State, said he also would be objecting to the granting of an order for a list of questions against his client.
In his report to Government, published six weeks after the riots, Mr Finlay criticised the FA's method of ticket sales and the FAI's pre match reselling of tickets returned by the FA.
He concluded that the "targeted, planned and intended violence had been caused solely by English fans, many of whom had obtained tickets through the English Travel Club.