Any underage players involved in an alleged assault at a football match in Clare risk being banned by the GAA for a number of years, a local official has warned. 

Footage of the alleged brawl during an Under-15 game between Kilrush-Killimer and Lissycasey on Monday evening has gone viral. 

Gardaí have since confirmed that they received a report that a man in his 50s and a teenager were injured. 

On Lunchtime Live, Clare GAA Chairperson Kieran Keating said the incident is being investigated. 

“With regard to the particular incident here, I can't say a whole lot about it, because we don't even have the referee's report yet on the game,” he said.

“We'll have that in the next 24 hours or so and then we'll deal with that. 

“Our Competitions Control Committee will look at that, see if we need to investigate what's reported on it and make our findings.

“If there are infractions that are proven in that, then we'll impose the punishments.”

Mr Keating added that behaviour  at matches has “improved quite a lot in recent years”. 

However, he conceded that rulebreaking does still occur and there is a “fairly detailed” list of sanctions that can be imposed on GAA members for infractions. 

“I won't try to bore you with all the details and we have to pore over it regularly enough to clarify exactly what we do,” he said. 

“But the sanctions for an offence in particular with a match official, an umpire, a referee or anything like that, they're the most serious of the sanctions within the rulebook. 

“Even more so for a mentor or for a spectator to interact - they're doubled on what you get for a player.

“We're talking about bans for years.”

Main image: A referee showing a red card. Picture by: Alamy.com.