GAA: GAA chief orders probe into alleged ref death threat.

Byline: PAUL KEANE 

GAA President Sean Kelly has condemned the reported death threat on Sunday's All-Ireland football semi-final referee Michael Monahan as "diabolical". Monahan is alleged to have been the subject of a death threat phoned in to Croke Park just minutes before he blew for full- time during Armagh's four point defeat of Donegal. Monahan is an experienced whistle blower and had been touted as a possible All-Ireland final referee on September 28 but a couple of high profile blunders appear to have wrecked his chances. Many have questioned his failure to issue a red card following a forearm smash by Armagh's John McEntee on Donegal centre-back Barry Monaghan on Sunday. Even at that no-one could have envisaged the alleged threat made against the referee's life. Kelly admitted at Croke Park yesterday that he had yet to investigate the matter fully but added: "It's diabolical to hear of something like this happening in a civilised society. "We're still not fully up to speed with what exactly happened but obviously I would have to condemn it if it turns out to be something that did occur." Kelly took the opportunity at the launch of the Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland hurling sevens to spring to the defence of beleaguered referees across the country who are coming under increasing pressure. "Both codes are very hard to referee now because levels of fitness have gone up enormously," said Kelly."The ball is travelling faster now and there has been so much development within both games that it's hard to please everyone. "With more live games now there is a tendency to analyse the mistakes, particularly by referees, much closer and in that context I think we're probably getting a false picture about our referees. "Looking at it in context overall the referees are putting in a huge effort. I met the referees here last Tuesday night, all 150 of them, and they are under a lot of pressure. "I think they deserve the support and the respect of everyone in the association. "Everyone makesmistakes and some of them will be perhaps because of ambiguities and anomalies in the rule book which have to be rectified outside the refereeing arena." Kelly would love to see a new rule introduced that would take the strain off referees. He explained: "I think there's merit in having a player who is sent off due to a second yellow card being replaced by a substitute. "In that sense the player deserves to be sent off and stays off but the team is not penalised as much. "A second player could come on in his place and you wouldn't have an uneven situation in the sense of 15 versus 14 or even 15 versus 13 like you do in some cases."

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WORRY: Michael Monahan