We need to keep the focus on the pitch, and not on pencil-pushing

If you were to ask me at the start of the year if I ever imagined that the shortest month of the year would unite University of Limerick’s Ashbourne Cup team and the Canadian women’s football team, I probably would’ve laughed at you. But sport can be weird like that.

Firstly the Canadian football team. If you’ve been following football in Canada long enough, you know that the governing body in Canada appears to enjoy battling with its senior national teams. In 2022, for example, the Canadian men’s national team were unhappy with their World Cup payout, threatening to go on strike as they felt disrespected by Canada Soccer during negotiations for players’ expenses.

And the women’s team? First, some context, the Canadian women’s national team are sixth in the world, Olympic gold medallists and opponents for the Republic of Ireland in the upcoming Women’s World Cup.

According to the players, their team are on the receiving end of cutbacks during this World Cup year. They decided that while negotiating with Canada Soccer, they wouldn’t train and wouldn’t play in the SheBelieves Cup, where they are due to face the USA late on Thursday night.

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The players claim that Canada Soccer then threatened them with legal action if their actions caused the association to miss out on income, due to their non-appearance in the SheBelieves Cup.

It now appears that the players will reluctantly train, silently protest and play the games as scheduled.

If you think one sporting embarrassment for a week was bad enough, try the Ashbourne Cup saga for size. For those unaware, the Ashbourne Cup is third level’s blue riband camogie competition, and UL’s dream of reaching the final weekend hinged on them achieving an unlikely result. Ahead of their game against Maynooth, UL knew that to advance from their group they would need to win by 33 points to qualify on scoring difference. Incredibly, they won by 34 points. Cue the celebrations.

But wait. The college were subsequently informed that due to a change being made to the result of a game played between DCU and Maynooth last November, their target was raised from 33 points to 35 – and they had failed to clear the new bar. DCU would be advancing to the semi-finals of the Ashbourne Cup.

UL released a statement in the wake of the controversy: “On Wednesday morning, 72 hours out from the Ashbourne Cup semi-finals, our UL senior camogie team were absolutely shocked and appalled to receive an email from the THDC [Transfers, Hearings and Disciplinary Committee] of the Camogie Association, stating our elimination from the Ashbourne Cup. This came just days after being congratulated by the CCAO [the colleges’ camogie board] on earning our place in the semi-finals.

“ ... As far as we are aware, a question was raised by DCU about the score difference, importantly not before but after our match with Maynooth, although they had been made officially aware of the scores and possible outcomes in the week leading up to the UL and Maynooth fixture.”

Naturally, you can understand the disappointment. Having been around teams all my life, I know they are set up in a way to achieve whatever obstacle or hurdle is placed before them. UL understandably felt the goalposts had been moved on them.

Weirdly enough, the results drama happened so quickly, and in such a wild manner, it didn’t even give printers enough time to remove UL’s panel from the programme. So, ironically, the team that were cruelly dumped out of the Ashbourne Cup still had their faces plastered all over the cup’s bumper programme on its showpiece weekend.

Even more annoying, the weekend was utterly overshadowed by the controversy, despite the action on the pitch being thrilling. UCC beat DCU in extra-time in the semi-final, before losing out in the final to TU Dublin by a last-minute score in extra-time.

But instead, all the focus was on UL’s dashed hopes. In a powerful silent protest, the team went to UCD, and sat on the sidelines in their team jerseys, silently watching the semi-final they felt they should have been playing in.

There’s still a damaging notion out there that women’s sports are best reported on when controversy strikes. After all, controversy sells. But while disagreements with administrators may catch the headlines, it’s not what any fan of women’s sports wants to see. There’s plenty of action on the pitch worth watching – let’s keep the focus there.