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Public pressure continued to mount on the GAA yesterday with more public figures from the world of sport, politics, and beyond calling on the organisation to allow a tribute match to the late Liam Miller take place at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
The 36-year-old former Manchester United, Celtic, and Cork City player died following a battle with cancer earlier this year.
Tickets for a tribute match featuring Ireland, Manchester United and Celtic legends in aid of the Miller family and Marymount Hospice, which is due to be held in 7000-capacity Turners Cross this September sold out in minutes last Friday — intensifying calls for the event to be moved nearby to the larger 45,000-capacity Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
The GAA have stressed that only a motion to the next Congress in February 2019 can over-ride its current refusal to stage the event there.
There had been unconfirmed reports over the weekend that permission would be granted to stage the match but the GAA are believed to be worried about setting a precedent.
Speaking on the subject, former Republic of Ireland international Damien Duff Damien Duff has blasted GAA authorities.
They've come out of it looking horrific, to brush it aside and leave it for an AGM, it's a load of rubbish. It's people in suits who are absolute dinosaurs. It's a disgrace. To say you can't open your gates for an amazing occasion for people from all walks of life to help a family. It wouldn't matter if it was baseball. If you strip it all back, a young man was taken way too early and this is to help a young bereft family. To deny them because of a rule at the bottom of a book really pisses me off. They should hang their heads in shame. And whatever they say now, they'll still come out of it looking like £#%&!ing dinosaurs".
Former Manchester United players such as Roy Keane, Denis Irwin, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes have signed up to take part in the game.
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Miserable old @#%&!s.
Look at them, its £#%&!ing old relics like them who wield power at the GAA. Farmers, retired guards, school teachers, they recoil in disgust at the merest mention of "the English game"