Mayo GAA president clears up NY tickets issue

NEW Mayo GAA County Board President Sean Feeney has cleared up a number of matters, including the selling of tickets in New York last May and 10-year tickets purchased while he was secretary of the county board.

In a statement, he outlined: “There was a smear campaign in relation to the sale of tickets prior to the New York game.

"I was asked by Eugene Rooney to sell some tickets for the game which I obliged in doing but did not sell any ticket above the market price and did not sell tickets out of the boot of a car,” stated Mr. Feeney.

“All monies I received from selling the tickets were given to Eugene Rooney.

“The second issue I want to address were the long-term tickets (10-year tickets). They were renewed in 2003 by the Mayo County Board.

“The distribution of these tickets is the responsibility of the county secretary and these tickets were distributed by the secretary.

“Great care had to be taken in relation to what persons were given these tickets because if they fell into the wrong hands all tickets would be cancelled by Croke Park.

“In 2004 and 2006 these tickets were used as part of a fundraising campaign which raised significant amounts of money for Mayo GAA.”  

Meanwhile Mr. Feeney also explained that he was part of the group that negotiated the original contract with Elverys but never leaked any information.

“Regarding the original contract with Elverys I was part of the group that negotiated the original contract.

"But at no time did I ever leak any information on the contract,” stated Mr. Feeney.

Finally, Mr. Feeney said that during his term as secretary of the county board he never took a salary.

“When I was secretary of Mayo County Board I never took a salary. The only thing I availed of was expenses.”  

He made his statement at a meeting of the county board.