‘Everything that’s wrong in Irish grassroots football’ – DDSL in Kennedy Cup row
DDSL celebrate after the Kennedy Cup Final match in 2018
The Dublin and District Schoolboys/girls league will hope for action from the FAI to prevent their players from being barred from the prestigious Kennedy Cup and Gaynor Cup tournaments next month. And one underage coach has spoken out about the row which he says ”should tell you everything that’s wrong in Irish grassroots football”.
The DDSL had applied for their teams to enter, as standard, the Kennedy Cup and Gaynor Cup tournaments. The Kennedy Cup in particular is one of the occasions in the schoolboy football calendar as dozens of senior internationals took part over decades while the girls’ version, the Gaynor Cup, has become hugely popular.
But the DDSL were told that due to their decision to disengage from the Schoolboys/girls FAI and stop paying their affiliation fees, claiming that the DDSL were under-represented at SFAI level, they were no longer eligible to enter teams, sparking anger across Dublin as trials had been held to select squads for the Kennedy and Gaynor Cups.
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“Old men in administrator positions stopping young girls participating in underage football tournaments should tell you everything that’s wrong in Irish grassroots football,” former League of Ireland player and current Leixlip United coach Robbie Martin said in as social media post.
The FAI will mediate at a meeting between the DDSL and FAI today in a bid to resolve the issue which has the potential to cause huge damage to the schoolboy/girl game. The DDSL are the most successful side to enter the Kennedy Cup, winning the inaugural event in 1976 with six consecutive wins between 2005 and 2010.
