Roddy Collins' legal adviser has today written a letter to the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) following the rejection of his appeal by the FAI Disciplinary Appeal of the decision of the FAI Disciplinary Committee who found him guilty of 'Disparaging Comments' during an open discussion on the RTE Radio 1 Saturday Sport programme of 16 July 2011.
Mr Collins is minded that the FAI's actions hinder and censor legitimate freedom of speech in breach of and in denial of the exercise of his constitutional rights and he has only participated in the proceedings under protest and has never in any way waived his constitutional rights and intends to assert them by whatever means necessary.
Reluctantly, it is his view that this issue can only be decided in the Courts of Ireland.
It was also noted that almost contemporaneous with the Notice of the decision that two press releases to all Irish media also dated September 12th 2011 emanated from the FAI.
These press releases, trumpeting the decision of the Appeal Committee themselves breach the findings of the Appeal Committee itself which states that the Committee, ‘finds that pursuant to Rule 152 of the FAI Rules all disclosures in relation to the hearing are confidential and the hearing itself is private’.
Mr Collins stated “I was delighted that such an excellent legal team lead by Paul Callan, SC, Séamus Ó Tuathail SC, Vincent P Martin BL and Fran Rooney BL were prepared to support this very important cause and praised their principled generosity.”
“I would also like to thank all the witnesses who volunteered to give evidence at the disciplinary hearing their own expense, and especially Sport Law International (SLÍ), without whose dedicated commitment neither he nor his family would be in a position to stand up effectively for our rights”.
Collins claimed that the topics covered on the programme were already widely in the public domain and were discussed by all the panellists "in a honest and mature manner without any malice" and he was “only ever exercising his right to freedom of expression calling all the comments as legitimate fair comment”, continuing "People living in a democracy, in any institution, from a kindergarten to the national Parliament are entitled to free speech".
He claimed that “RTE afforded the FAI a right to reply but they declined this and instead the FAI charged me with allegedly making disparaging remarks about the Association”
Additionally Collins has sought an undertaking, in writing, from the FAI that they will not undertake any further action against him, or any club to whom he may be contracted, before the completion of proceedings.
Roddy Collins is scheduled to join the guest panel on Tonight with Vincent Browne to be broadcast on TV3 Ireland on Wednesday night.
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