Outgoing secretary of the Clare Schoolboys/Schoolgirls Soccer League (CSSL), Ciaran O’Dea has warned clubs to ensure they are complying with all data protection regulations and for coaches to be more considerate of all players.

At last week’s AGM of the CSSL, O’Dea stepped down as secretary having been on the county committee since 2008. “The league is here to provide an environment of fixtures and competition for boys and girls from the ages of six to sixteen. This year we have excelled in providing fixtures and competition, this is largely down to fixtures secretary, Conor Twomey”.

Of frustration was teams failing to fulfil fixtures and not notifying the CSSL, in voicing his disapproval on this Ciaran quoted D’Unbelievables, “ye can’t be doing that lads”.

He praised the exploits of the U13 county girls team and the U16 boys who reached the All-Ireland Plate Final who struggled to find a manager in recent years. “Because there has been a lot of effort put into them, they have excelled. We must remember this is not Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Waterford, we cannot discard kids, we have to be patient,” the Mullagh man stressed.

Club coaches’ primary objective needs to be on player development, O’Dea stated. “All of us are cooked, if we’re not we’re heading towards medium. It is all about the players not the coaches thinking they are better than Mourinho but that the gods of soccer haven’t shone on them. It is about development, I would encourage all of ye to think about the environment ye are providing”.

A former Chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee, Ciaran cautioned clubs to be very careful regarding data protection. “We are still getting over child protection issues that have been in place for over two years. GDPR will hit someone very hard before we realise it. Don’t be sending open emails, purely of basic manners don’t be talking about other people online. Be careful about GDPR”.