Mayo soccer club successful in FAI Junior Cup appeal saga

Mayo soccer side Castlebar Celtic have successfully appealed their controversial loss to Waterford’s Villa FC in the FAI Junior Cup.

Stevie Gavin’s men lost 3-0 on the road to Villa on February 16. However, in the following days, the club appealed the result to the FAI on the basis that the hosts had allegedly fielded an ineligible player who had played in the League of Ireland after the FAI Junior Cup had begun.

READ MORE: Mayo football star signs short-term contract with Galway United

According to the competition rulebook, players who played in a League of Ireland competition after the commencement of the FAI Junior Cup are ineligible to play.

Following a successful appeal, the Mayo Super League and Connacht Cup champions will take Villa’s place in the quarter-final stage and will face Salthill Devon of Galway in the quarter-finals in Castlebar.

Rule 13.2 of the Football Association of Ireland Junior Challenge Cup Competition Rules 2024/2025 states that ‘A player who has played in the FAI Senior Cup with a League of Ireland Premier or First Division team during the season of this competition is not eligible to participate in the FAI Junior Cup’.

READ MORE: Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny will have portrait painted by Mayo woman

Rule 2(f.) from the FAI Junior Challenge Cup 2022/23 rulebook states the following:

“If the Competition Manager/Area Manager has any doubt as to the qualification of any player taking part in the Competition they shall have the of power to call upon such player or team to which he belongs, or for which he has played , to prove he is a qualified according to the rules and failing satisfactory proof, the disciplinary committee may disqualify such player and may remove the team from the competition.”