BOTH Antrim Gaelic footballers and camogs have now been forced to surrender home advantage in inter-county games this weekend after their opponents refused to cross the border.
Antrim senior footballers were due to host Waterford at Portglenone and the camogs to meet Carlow at Randalstown.
However, both southern teams claimed to have players threatened with a 14-day quarantine by employers if they made the trip.
The refusal of Carlow to travel surprised many as Antrim and Newtownabbey's council area - where Randalstown is - has seen 63 new coronavirus cases compared to Carlow's 148 cases in the same period.
There was further concern sparked by the move of the game to Monaghan where there are 350 cases per 100,000, compared with 210 in Randalstown, with the county board saying it was not consulted.
One player has withdrawn from the Antrim team because she fears for the safety of an elderly relative and is concerned at Monaghan's Level 5 lockdown and high rate of positive tests.
A Camogie Association spokesman said the fixture has been moved to Inniskeen Grattans, Co Monaghan after "on Thursday morning it transpired that the employers of three of the Carlow team were insisting that those individuals would be required to self-isolate for 14 days upon their return from the fixture".
"This situation therefore put the fixture in jeopardy and on Thursday evening a decision was made by the Association's Ard Chomhairle to move the fixture to a venue as close to the border as possible in order to preserve the integrity of the competition, and enable fixtures to proceed as per schedule.
"Both teams have kindly agreed to this decision."
He admitted "at this time there is no public health guidance in place in relation for players travelling between both jurisdictions".
"We will continue to engage with public health authorities in both jurisdictions and will follow this public health guidance as directed as well as implementing all return to play protocols."
Antrim county board said it believed it had reassured Carlow and was shocked by the bombshell decision by the association.
Antrim footballers offered to travel to Dundalk to play their Division 4 league clash after Waterford said they would conceded the fixture due to Covid-19 concerns, which they said included the concerns of some players' employers over them travelling to Northern Ireland.
However, Dublin - which is one of the highest areas of infection in the Republic - is travelling to Galway and Donegal players are travelling across the country to Kerry, despite the latter recording 56 new cases over 14 days and Donegal now reaching 321 per 100,000.
This has led to suggestions that counties in the Republic are not prepared to cross the border to play in competitions, despite the exemption of senior Gaelic Games as an `elite sport' by the government.
The GAA did not respond when asked by the Irish News if counties would travel to Croke Park to play matches if its competitions continue to the stage where Dublin have a home game.
Among the arguments being advanced for Waterford's unwillingness to travel was passing through coronavirus `hotspots' in Northern Ireland such as Belfast, with has around the same number of cases as Dublin.
