{"id":162806,"date":"2025-11-27T17:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T17:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/162806\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T17:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T17:00:08","slug":"belfast-coach-expelled-after-posting-alleged-cocaine-prices-in-youth-league-chat-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/162806\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast coach expelled after posting alleged cocaine prices in youth league chat \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/northern-ireland\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/northern-ireland\/\">Northern Ireland<\/a> football club has removed a coach who posted an apparent menu of cocaine prices in a group chat for a youth league.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The list of prices for \u201cproper pure bags\u201d detailed times and meeting locations and specified cash payment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Belfast club said it had expelled the coach after becoming aware of the WhatsApp message, posted on Wednesday and later deleted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThis type of behaviour is completely unacceptable within our club. The coach involved has been permanently removed with immediate effect,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The club said its vetting procedures followed Irish Football Association guidelines and that the post had caused shock and was being treated with urgency. \u201cAs a community club, we pride ourselves on putting the best interests of our players first,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The WhatsApp group is reportedly used to arrange match fixtures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The FonaCab Development League said it could not monitor or control every message between coaches. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cHowever, we do have clear expectations of behaviour, and any conduct that breaches safeguarding or professionalism will be addressed immediately,\u201d it said. \u201cOur responsibility is to protect the wellbeing of every child and uphold the values the league is built on.\u201d It thanked the coaches who met those expectations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/2025\/11\/23\/almost-500000-worth-of-cocaine-seized-in-limerick\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Almost \u20ac500,000 worth of cocaine seized in LimerickOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A league spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph it did not employ coaches and therefore could not sack anyone: \u201cWe have already informed the relevant club from west Belfast involved and our safeguarding procedures have been activated, with the coach removed from the fixtures group. The matter is now being dealt through the appropriate channels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Of people in Northern Ireland who consume illegal drugs almost half \u2013 46.4 per cent \u2013 use cocaine, the health department\u2019s substance misuse database shows. &#8211; Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/2025\/10\/01\/four-men-arrested-in-dublin-after-weapons-drugs-and-high-end-goods-seized\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Four men arrested in Dublin after weapons, drugs and \u2018high-end goods\u2019 seizedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northern Ireland football club has removed a coach who posted an apparent menu of cocaine prices in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4501,61,60,43,2443,15300],"class_list":["post-162806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-belfast","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}