Thurs Lunch Sport Update

Annual GAA Convention; FAI Fined €20k; Sterling Returns to World Cup Camp, IRFU's €1m for Women's Rugby; Punchestown Preparing for Sunday's John Durkin Memorial

The annual Kildare GAA County Board convention took place last night in the Osprey Hotel, Naas.

Proceedings last only 70 minutes.

All the outgoing officers were returned unopposed.

Treasurer Alan Dunny reported a surplus of €1.1 million for the year.

€650,000 of that will be transferred to the St. Conleth’s Park Development Fund, which will now stand at €1.65 million.

The FAI has been fined 20 thousand euro after the Republic of Ireland women's team were recorded singing a pro IRA chant in October.

UEFA levied the fine after a video emerged of the squad singing 'Celtic Symphony' by the Wolfe Tones following the World Cup playoff win over Scotland.

The European football described the chant as a 'violation of the basic rules of decent conduct'.

In a statement, the FAI said they accepted the sanction and have apologised to all "affected by the events".


Raheem Sterling will return to Qatar on Friday ahead of the huge World Cup quarter-final showdown against France.

The 27-year-old forward left camp last week ahead of the Sengegal game, due to concern over his family’s wellbeing after a break-in at his home in Surrey.

The Portuguese Football Federation has denied reports Cristiano Ronaldo threatened to leave their World Cup squad during an exchange with head coach Fernando Santos.

The former Manchester United forward was left out of the starting line-up for his country's 6-1 defeat of Switzerland.


Luis Enrique has stepped down as Spain manager following his side's exit from the World Cup.

They were eliminated by Morocco on penalties in the last 16.

The 52 year old first took charge in 2018 and guided the side to the semi finals of Euro 2020.


The IRFU has pledged an additional €1m of annual funding to women's rugby in Ireland, after launching their Women's Rugby in Ireland report this morning.

The 50-page report covers women's rugby in Ireland from grassroots to high-performance and is in addition to the €5.5m that had been announced last month.

The IRFU says plans are continuing around a Celtic Cup competition with Scottish and Welsh teams

Leinster will be boosted by the availability of Cian Healy for Saturday's Champions Cup clash with Racing 92 in France.

The prop has been cleared to play after the red card he received against Ulster last weekend was overturned.


Today's race meeting at Clonmel goes ahead after the course passed a morning inspection.

Punchestown will monitor the weather situation ahead of their big race days on Sunday -the John Durkan Memorial Chase.

Punchestown announced yesterday that there will be free admission to their annual New Year’s Eve meeting.