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THE DEADLINE HAS passed for the company running September’s high-profile college football game between Boston College and Georgia Tech, which organisers say is worth more than €50 million to the local economy, to comply with minimum sanctioning requirements for the game.
A spokesperson for Irish American Football Association (IAFA) said that the organisers “had applied for sanction but had yet to demonstrate compliance with the safety, welfare and insurance requirements for playing games in Ireland”.
The spokesperson added that these are the same minimum requirements which the IAFA’s 23 amateur teams across the island comply with.
This follows revelations last week that the IAFA had claimed they were owed over €11,000 in legal fees for the sanctioning of the game.
A spokesperson for organisers Irish American Events Limited (IAEL) said that they had no concerns over the game.
“There are no concerns around the game happening and the organisers are very happy with any and all timeframes they have set for the successful staging of the game.”
The spokesperson added that IAEL was in contact with “all parties” on the game, but did not elaborate on when sanctioning would be met or whether they accepted the IAFA claim in respect of legal fees allegedly owed to IAFA.
Despite documents showing that the organisers agreed to the sanctioning process and also to absorb any fees associated with that process, they have failed to meet Thursday’s deadline.
Last week, Irish American Events Limited indicated that the game was sanctioned by the NCAA in the US. However, the NCAA is not the governing body for American football in the US and have no role to play in the sanctioning of games. This function is carried out by USA Football.
Under Irish regulations, the recognised National Governing Body (NGB) is responsible for sanctioning all competitive fixtures in their code held in the country.
The Irish Sports Council recognises the Irish American Football Association (IAFA) as American football’s NGB here.
The NCAA did not respond by publication to reply when asked to confirm if they had any part to play in either the sanctioning or running of the game. Likewise, when contacted for a quote, the designated home team – Boston College – has not replied.
The Department of Sport told TheJournal.ie that it had no role in sanctioning and was leaving the matter to the bodies involved.
The interaction between the organisers of events and National Governing Bodies is entirely a matter for the parties involved.
A letter from IFAF, the world governing body for American football, says they support the decision not to sanction the game if the requirements are not met. Another email supports the IAFA’s stance that it alone is responsible for sanctioning the game.
The IAFA re-iterated their stance that “the purpose of the sanctioning process is to check that all games played in this jurisdiction comply with minimum safety, welfare and insurance requirements” and documents show they had a number of concerns over this game.
Organisers were told that insurance for the game needed to be in place by 30 June to allow full checks to take place as the extent of cover. However, IAEL said that insurance would not be in place until 3 August, one month before the game.
Another issue was that no anti-doping agency was named to carry out drug testing at the event alongside the Irish Sports Council. In previous years, the United States Anti-Doping Agency have fulfilled that role.
The IAFA could not comment on what will happen with the game now, though its standard sanctioning form contains a clause on appeals.
It says that any appeals would go to Just Sport Ireland, an independent resolutions body for the sports industry, for binding arbitration.
It is not known what would happen should the IAFA win such an appeal.
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“Always proud of what we accomplished for the American people”… really!?
@merely ed: well if you call turning the economy around,creating jobs ,and putting money in working class pockets “doing something” then yes Really he did…hard concept to grasp here I know..
@Gerry Campbell: Turning the economy around how exactly? Building on the economy being turned around is more accurate. But instead of reducing the debt, deficit and trade deficit (as ‘promised’)…..guess what happened? Also, exactly how much did ‘the working class’ gain in the 8th largest tax cuts in US history?
@Gerry Campbell: looks like you fell for the Fox and trump narrative. The US economy was on the rise under Obama, along with the global economy. He gave tax rises to his billionaire buddy’s and totally lost the economy over ignoring covid and then mismanagement of the country. Maybe you also believed his 12641 lies and false facts or his 25000 tweets and thought he did well during his 234 golf days or that the perpetual sacking of the very best best people was enough. He was the worst president the US ever had, is a complete narcissist and not a nice person. Apart from this, he was grand.
@Gerry Campbell: Trump spent money that wasn’t there, by getting the Fed to print more money, bringing interest rates to almost zero in the process, lumbering future generations with massive debt. The previous administration did not create anything positive. Some people have weird ideas about what ‘doing good for a country’ really looks like
@Gerry Campbell: and the millions in tax cuts he gave the rich sure did wonders alright. And sure he didn’t go to war with any country unlike past presidents, but almost brought his own country to the brink of civil unrest. And then there was the border wall…those pesky Mexicans were going to pay for, how did that work out lads
@Gerry Campbell: Hard to grasp? You really have to have your brain in neutral not to see what a disaster the Trump administration was. The USA has never been more polarised. Looking back now at the chilling speech that Trump gave on the 6th Jan was chilling and reminiscent of the speeches Hitler gave in the ‘30s. Grasp that.
@Gerry Campbell: Ger drank the GOP kool-aid
@Gerry Campbell: Putting money in the pockets of working class Americans is a complete myth and if you look at the facts and not the smoke and mirrors that Trump would have you believe you’ll see he did nothing for the working class of America
@Gerry Campbell: I guess you’re part of the deluded Republicans too… oh dear.
@Gerry Campbell: your just another deluded f00l!
He’s just another facilitator of a dangerous nut job.
What is driving those people??
@Johannes Baader: 70-odd million potential votes
“Thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police”- weren’t they the ones who opened the barriers, stood aside and let them in? Pretty sure there were numerous videos floating around at the time showing it.
@Football in the Groin: yeah, I thought the story there was they were told to fall back to defend the building rather than the barricaded perimeter die to not getting the extra numbers they had requested
Just trying to separate himself from Trump and give that 2024 campaign a hope in hell
I cannot forget an interview I saw on TV prior to the election. Trump was speaking and Pence was watching him with what looked like total adoration. Pence strikes me as a pawn who wore a gag throughout the Trump presidency placed there by his handlers. He would be a puppet to those Republican handlers were he ever elected.
This is because Biden’s eyes are looking at the facts, but Trump’s eyes actually never stop rotating, the left in a counter-clockwise motion, the right clockwise.
@Mac Muinteoir: holy moley, my eyes read pence but my brain read Biden. Trump still a swivel-eyed loon tho.
Pence is like the DUP of American politics, he lives in the 1600′s with his views and what people don’t realise, he’s more dangerous than even trump would be, cos aul donny just wanted the spotlight and did his dance on immigration and border walls, but pence would be like hold my beer if he ever got into power with what he would try bring in terms of policy
The smile Pence gave, before saying that he and Trump would never see eye to eye on certain things was meant to say to Trump supporters “Yes, he really is a great guy, isn’t he.”
Surely they’ll send each other Christmas cards at least. Is there any light at the tunnel for Bert and Ernie?
How unreasonable of him not seeing eye to eye with a loon who sent a mob to Lynch him.
Trump is a great guy.
If Pence manages to become President in 2024 the Trump supporters will kill him.
@David O Brien: trump supporters won’t vote for him. They will be too busy voting for trumps new party. And That’ll split the Republican vote
@David O Brien: True but if they can’t fix the massive Trump Q-Anon v Conservative Republican divide in the party – they won’t have to worry about which one of them won’t be winning the Presidency again any time soon
Very restrained from Pence considering trump’s blatant lies to his mob about pence’s non existent powers to stop the election decision and his alleged failure to carry them out resulted in the same mob wanting to hang Pence. Who would even talk to someone else who did that to them in normal life?
Pence allowed the BOZO LIER TRUMP TO BE THE MAN WHO MURDERED SO MENY PEOPLE
Can I ask why Pence does not get any credit for refusing to overturn the election results? If he had gone against Trump before that he would surely have been replaced. I feel his refusal to go with Trump on that key issue went a long way to moving America from the brink of civil war
@Eamon Kelly: He literally couldn’t. His role was purely ceremonial and was to announce the results as returned by the electors. The idea that he could reject it was another falsehood.
@Eamon Kelly: he had no power to do so. When trump has no other way out of a situation he will throw anyone under the bus, even his own family.
@Steve O’Farrell: thanks
@Fred spins kdb: thanks
Pence is a spent penny
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