'A farce' - Fermanagh captain slams Allianz Hurling League exclusion plan

A Fermanagh hurler has labelled proposals to potentially exclude a number of counties from the Allianz League from 2025 onwards as "a farce".

A recommendation from the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee, if approved, would see any county with fewer than five adult hurling teams competing solely in the fifth-tier Lory Meagher Cup – meaning the Erne County, Cavan, Leitrim, Longford and Louth would be impacted.

With no league action, their county seasons would be reduced from six months to three with the saved spending, along with additional funding, instead aimed at improving hurling development in those counties.

Fermanagh captain Ryan Bogue, one of the longest serving inter-county hurlers having made his debut off the bench against Cavan in 2006, said he was gobsmacked when he was presented with the document explaining the possible changes.

"The whole thing seems to be made up and pulled out of the sky with no consideration put into it at all," he told RTÉ Sport.

"I wouldn't say I would be overly surprised. Over the last six, seven years, the treatment of hurling in counties like our own has definitely improved but previous to that you were always obviously second best in terms of privileges.

"I thought we had got past that but this is just back to that. Our county board is great, anything we want, we get, but this is coming from the top.

"The fact that the players who are playing the game have absolutely no control seems crazy to me.

"It worries me about how the ladies and camogie teams will be treated when the integration process is completed if this is how hurlers will be treated."

Players from the quintet have been in touch with the Gaelic Players Association seeking advice on how they can fight the proposal, and