DROGHEDA UNITED HAVE confirmed that they will cover the full cost of the flare damage to Dundalk\u2019s pitch at Oriel Park. <\/p>\n
The club also says that it accepts the sanctions imposed by the Independent Disciplinary Committee of the FAI, including the \u20ac15,000 fine, the four-match away supporter ban, and the prohibition on supporters attending away fixtures against their Louth rivals for the remainder of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
The fallout to last Friday\u2019s derby has been stark, with Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan pausing all League of Ireland clubs\u2019 funding for astro turf projects and decrying \u201ca plague on all their houses\u201d for the actions of people he labelled \u201cgougers\u201d and \u201chooligans\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Minister sought a meeting with FAI chief executive David Courell and League of Ireland director Mark Scanlon on Wednesday to hear of their plans to stamp out the use of pyro around the country. <\/p>\n
Funding was later restored last night after the punishments imposed on Drogheda were announced, and the club also confirmed that \u201cfollowing an internal review, a number of individuals were found to have engaged in negative fan behaviour and have been sanctioned by the club\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ahead of tonight\u2019s Premier Division game at home to Shelbourne, the club issued the following statement:\u201d Drogheda United FC would like to thank the Independent Disciplinary Committee of the FAI for hearing our case in full.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fully accept the sanctions imposed, including the \u20ac15,000 fine, the four-match away supporter ban, and the prohibition on our supporters attending fixtures at Oriel Park for the remainder of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe events that occurred are deeply regrettable and Drogheda United FC is currently working closely with Dundalk FC regarding the necessary pitch repairs, and we will be covering the full cost of the damage caused.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing an internal review, a number of individuals were found to have engaged in negative fan behaviour and have been sanctioned by the club. We will continue to work with Dundalk FC and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na during this investigation.<\/p>\n
We also wish to reiterate that Drogheda United operates a strict and newly updated Zero Tolerance Policy at Sullivan and Lambe Park. The possession, use, or throwing of pyrotechnics \u2014 or any behaviour that endangers others \u2014 will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Individuals found to be in breach of stadium regulations will face immediate and severe consequences, including stadium bans and further action where appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur supporters are the heartbeat of this football club. The overwhelming majority represent Drogheda United with pride, passion and respect. We now ask everyone associated with the club to come together, stand united, and get fully behind the team for tonight\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DROGHEDA UNITED HAVE confirmed that they will cover the full cost of the flare damage to Dundalk\u2019s pitch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,162671,23663,18,13,14,168065,6,19,17,11,12,6435,166108,15,16,5,4335,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-360334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-drogheda-united","11":"tag-dundalk","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-gesture","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-league-of-ireland","22":"tag-loi2026","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-soccer","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116146750278845735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}