GAA strikes deal on Liam Miller tribute

Liam Miller. Picture: Getty

Ralph Riegel Twitter Email

July 29 2018 06:30 PM

Sports stars, politicians and church leaders welcomed the compromise deal hammered out by the GAA to allow the Liam Miller tribute soccer match to proceed at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on September 25.

The match - between an Ireland XI and a Manchester United XI including Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes - will now go ahead along with a special GAA event at the new €70m Cork stadium.

While details of the event have yet to be finalised, it is expected it will either be an All Star hurling or Gaelic football game before the soccer friendly. Proceeds from the day, which is expected to attract a sell-out 45,000 crowd, will go to the Liam Miller fund, Marymount Hospice in Cork, and a fund for GAA charities in the Cork area.

Mr Miller (36), a former Cork City, Ireland, Manchester United and Celtic star, died last February from cancer, leaving a wife and three young children. The GAA charity fund is now set to include a support scheme for GAA players who have been seriously injured or are fighting illness.

The go-ahead for the Liam Miller match came after special meetings of the Central Committee and Management Committee of the GAA. That followed a key meeting at Croke Park last Tuesday between GAA chiefs and the Miller match organisers.

It brings to an end days of controversy, during which the GAA came under pressure to change the interpretation of the rule on the use of grounds.

Minister for Sport Shane Ross led the campaign to force the GAA to make Pairc Ui Chaoimh available for the game after it became clear that Turner's Cross would not be big enough. "I am delighted that a practical solution has been found," Mr Ross said after the announcement.

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