BOHEMIANS HAVE WITHDRAWN from the Irn Bru Cup after the late postponement of their quarter-final tie against East Fife presented the club with a “logistical nightmare” ahead of the new Premier Division season.
Officials did not allow Saturday’s game to go ahead due to a frozen pitch, with the verdict of an inspection 90 minutes before kick eventually heeded by the club.
The game was not officially called off until just minutes before the match, however, with Bohs’ claiming that they wanted to give the tie every chance to go ahead.
“Given the expense and logistics involved in East Fife officials, management, players and supporters travelling from Scotland to Dublin, the referee wanted to afford more time in the hope that the areas worst affected – those under the shade of the Jodi Stand – might thaw in the continued sunshine,” the club explained in a statement yesterday.
The statement also added: “Bohemians’ progression in the tournament has seen the inclusion of Irish clubs in the IRN-BRU Cup criticised in the Scottish press and the disruption to Scottish clubs’ fixtures calendar come under scrutiny.
The logistics have been challenging. But we have done our level best to be as flexible as possible. We offered to extend last season into the month of November to facilitate this tie being played then but no date was deemed suitable.”
The decision has now been taken to withdraw the team from the cup competition with immediate effect.
“Bohemian FC can confirm that we today took the decision to withdraw from the IRN-BRU Scottish Challenge Cup following discussions with the FAI, the SPFL and East Fife,” the club announced on Monday evening.
The late postponement of Saturday’s quarter-final against East Fife at Dalymount Park presented both clubs and both associations with a logistical nightmare.
“We deeply regret having to withdraw from the competition but we feel that, given that the semi-final of the tournament is due to take place in 11 days’ time, the logistical and time constraints involved in trying to reschedule our quarter-final tie before then was an impossible task.
With little scope to find an alternative date that suited both clubs and following discussions between our club’s board and the first-team management about the distracting effect ongoing disruption could have on preparations for the new league season, we agreed that we have to prioritise the start of our league campaign and thus regrettably withdraw from the tournament.
“We have done our best to accommodate this fixture, offering to extend our 2018 season into November and, when no suitable date could be found then, we agreed to start our 2019 season two weeks earlier to host the game on Saturday. It is of enormous regret that despite these efforts, the tie never took place.”
Keith Long’s side kick off their campaign at home to Finn Harps on 15 February before they meet rivals Shamrock Rovers at the end of the month.
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