Roscommon GAA propose lengthy ban for alleged assault on referee

The ban will be for 96 weeks.

Following the disgraceful scenes at an u17 match in Roscommon, where a referee was left hospitalised after an altercation with someone who entered the pitch from the sideline, the county board are set to make a decision. With many calling for the perpetrator to receive a life-ban from all GAA matches the latest from the Roscommon GAA’s Competitions Control Committee (CCC) is a 96-week suspension for the person involved. A Category IVa infraction governing ‘Any type of assault on a Referee, Umpire, Linesman or Sideline Official’ carries a minimum 48-week ban but according to the Roscommon Herald, county board chiefs have handed out the maximum censure in this case. The game itself was abandoned and the official in question, Kevin Naughton, was left laying unconscious on the middle of the pitch. Naughton was brought to the hospital where he remained overnight and released the following morning. A video of the incident had been doing the rounds on social media, and is not pleasant viewing. The county board had already taken the action of postponing all games in the county the weekend after the alleged assault occurred.