Donegal League player handed five-year ban for referee assault

A Donegal Junior League footballer has been hit with a five-year ban from football.

JP Doran, a Rathmullan Celtic player, has been handed a 60 month suspension following an assault on a match referee.

The Brian McCormick Cup game between Rathmullan Celtic and Swilly Rovers on September 8 was abandoned following the incident. 

Match referee Gerard Devine abandoned the fixture in the second half.

Devine’s match report was sent to the Football Association’s (FAI) whose Disciplinary Control Unit (DCU) carried out a probe.

Doran’s suspension, effective from September 9 last, for 60 months is from all football related activity.

Doran was sanctioned under Section 7.2, Regulation 2 (1) (e) of the FAI Handbook, which deals with misconduct by players and officials against match officials.

The three-person disciplinary committee handed down the heavy punishment under the regulation which deals with incidents ‘that involves head butting and/or repeatedly and deliberately pushing, pulling, spitting at, elbowing, punching, kicking etc. a match official’.

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The FAI handbook instructs that the suspension for such an infraction will be at least 36 months.

The decision can be appealed at a cost of €500.

At a local level, the Donegal Junior League will now rule on the outcome of the game and determine whether or not Swilly Rovers - who were leading 1-0 at the time of the abandonment - will be given a passage into the Letterkenny Area Shield final against Letterkenny Rovers.