Kildare camogie team hit out at county board 'disrespect' after decision to withdraw them from All-Ireland championship

The Kildare camogie team has hit out at what they say is the 'disrespectful' county board decision to withdraw them from the All-Ireland intermediate championship against their wishes.

The players had been in dispute with the Kildare Camogie county board over what they claim was a failure to meet the terms of an agreed charter.

In a statement issued through the Gaelic Players Association, the team say they were informed of the county board's decision through a WhatsApp message on Friday and told there would be no further discussion.

The intermediate championship begins this month and Kildare, finalists in 2015 and who do not play at senior level, were due to play in a group with Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and Galway.

"This has caused great distress to us as a playing group and indeed anger," the statement said.

"This is not only because the decision was taken without our consent but because of the disrespect that was shown to us in how it was communicated.

"We want to be very clear, we want to represent Kildare to the best of our ability in the camogie championship. This is and has always been the case."

The players said they had been in discussions over a number of issues, including that "a charter, agreed between the players, the executive, and the management team was not being adhered to.

"A decision was taken by the County Board that senior inter-county players would not be permitted to play in the Kildare club leagues even at the discretion of our inter-county manager. This is a decision we did not agree with.

"It had reached a stage where we had informed the county board executive that we would withdraw from the panel as a result of this mistreatment in the hope that they would rectify these issues.

"At a recent meeting with