Leitrim Chairman Enda Stenson has questioned the point of inter-county football in 2020 if heavy crowd restrictions are in place.
Leitrim’s club championship gets underway this weekend, with the expectation that grounds would increase to 500 from round two, however the government’s mid-week announcement won’t see an increase until at least August
“Of all the announcements to hear that GAA grounds won’t open to 500 people until the 10th of August, my heart sank” explained Stenson, echoing John Horan’s call to increase crowd numbers for GAA games.
“If for instance we get to the stage of the county semi-finals and final stage where we can’t get people into the grounds, then what is the sense in going ahead with the inter-county scene?”
“I cannot see any sense good, bad or indifferent to pay good money to train inter-county teams to play matches virtually behind closed doors”.
“I don’t think it should happen” declared Stenson. “I would actually be calling on other counties to pull out all together.”
“Why would we put good money into developing teams into all that it takes to get inter-county teams onto the field for championship games or league games and it wouldn’t be there for the spectators?”
“Our games are about our people, our spectators and our supporters, the GAA people are volunteers and they support of their family and friends and if they can’t have that, I can see no sense in playing.”
