{"id":319536,"date":"2026-02-27T05:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T05:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/319536\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T05:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T05:12:10","slug":"drogheda-united-hit-with-away-supporter-ban-and-e15000-fine-following-oriel-park-flare-damage-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/319536\/","title":{"rendered":"Drogheda United hit with away supporter ban and \u20ac15,000 fine following Oriel Park flare damage \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drogheda United<\/a> fans have been banned by the FAI from attending the club\u2019s next four away fixtures after flares were thrown on the Oriel Park pitch during last Friday\u2019s Louth derby<\/a> against Dundalk FC<\/a>. <\/p>\n

An Independent Disciplinary Committee of the FAI<\/a> also imposed a \u20ac15,000 fine on the club, in addition to banning Drogheda supporters from all fixtures at Oriel Park for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Drogheda\u2019s next four away games are against Sligo Rovers, St Patrick\u2019s Athletic, Derry City and Waterford. <\/p>\n

A statement from the FAI issued on Thursday evening read: \u201cFollowing the Premier Division fixture between Dundalk and Drogheda United on February 20th, during which a significant number of pyrotechnic devices were ignited and thrown resulting in an injury to a minor and substantial damage to Oriel Park, an independent disciplinary committee of the FAI has imposed the sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch conduct presents a serious and unacceptable risk to public safety, causes damage to facilities and will continue to result in disciplinary action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FAI added: \u201cThese significant sanctions have been deemed necessary by the Independent Disciplinary Committee considering the magnitude of the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this incident and the use of pyrotechnics are carried out by a minority of supporters, these unacceptable events cannot be repeated in future and have no place in the League of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the clubs issued a joint-statement<\/a> condemning the scenes.<\/p>\n

Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan, who was present at the match at Oriel Park, paused State funding for astro pitches following the incident. Responding to news of the sanctions, he welcomed the outcome of the Independent Disciplinary Committee\u2019s review.<\/p>\n

The Minister also commended the FAI and League \u201cfor acting swiftly and decisively\u201d, adding he appreciated them \u201ctaking this matter so seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have instructed full, normal engagement resume between my Department and the FAI together with the League on foot of this significant disciplinary action,\u201d a statement from O\u2019Donovan read.<\/p>\n

Drogheda have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drogheda United fans have been banned by the FAI from attending the club\u2019s next four away fixtures after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[103980,2538,13446,61,60,2539,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-319536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-drogheda-united","9":"tag-dundalk-fc","10":"tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-league-of-ireland","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319536","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=319536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}