Soccer

Irish Cup semi-finals could be on ice as Cliftonville turn to arbitration over suspensions

.Cliftonville's Gary Breen and Jamie Harney have still to serve their bans, the IFA insist, despite the pandemic cancelling the Irish Premier League
.Cliftonville's Gary Breen and Jamie Harney have still to serve their bans, the IFA insist, despite the pandemic cancelling the Irish Premier League .Cliftonville's Gary Breen and Jamie Harney have still to serve their bans, the IFA insist, despite the pandemic cancelling the Irish Premier League

THE Irish Cup semi-final between Cliftonville and Glentoran, scheduled for next Monday night at Windsor Park, is in doubt as the north Belfast club will seek arbitration after their appeal to rescind the suspensions of Garry Breen and Jamie Harney was rejected by the IFA.

After much debate, the Northern Ireland Football League [NIFL] cancelled the Irish Premier League after 31 rounds of games last month due to the global pandemic.

Reds officials have staunchly argued that, as a result, the two players could not serve their suspensions because of the abandonment and therefore any pursuit of serving match bans should also be abandoned.

Cliftonville chairman Gerard Lawlor said last night the club would “consider all options” including arbitration. With the clock ticking, it remains to be seen if arbitration could be completed before Monday’s game and therefore there is a very real possibility it could be postponed.

Such a scenario would cause the IFA a major headache as they want to see the completion of the Irish Cup as soon as possible.

“People will automatically think that this is a Cliftonville issue but there are roughly 330 players in local football who don’t know whether they're suspended or not now because the pandemic declared they could not serve their bans,” said Lawlor.

“When you look at this logically, players haven’t played for four or five months – and to keep them out of the game for longer doesn’t seem right on any reasonable level.”

David Jeffrey’s appeal against a sideline ban was also rejected after the IFA informed the respective clubs of their findings at 6.20pm last night.

The IFA insisted the suspensions are still active and must be served.

Jamie Harney had served half of his two-game ban after picking up 10 bookings, while Breen picked up a 10th yellow card in Cliftonville’s last game against Glentoran before the Premiership was halted back in March and is still to serve a two-game ban.

Ballymena could also pursue arbitration and if there is not sufficient time to deal with the outstanding issues both Irish Cup semi-finals could be on ice.

Both games were scheduled to go ahead on Monday night behind closed doors.