Wednesday 28 November 2018 16:43, UK
The Leinster Senior League in Ireland are to decide what action to take against football club Ballybrack who falsely reported one of their players had died.
The league told Sky Sports News that they will be meeting on Thursday to decide on possible disciplinary action against the Dublin-based amateur side.
Ballybrack wrongly informed the Leinster league that Fernando Nuno La Fuente, a Spanish native, died in a traffic accident last Thursday.
The side's game against Arklow Town on Saturday was postponed, while other teams in the league held a minute's silence in honour of the player.
A death notice was posted by the league in Irish newspaper The Herald before it was discovered that La Fuente was alive and well.
Speaking to Sean O'Rourke on RTE Radio 1, Fernando said: "I was aware there was going to be some story on me but I thought it was me going to be breaking a leg or something really senseless, but no, it wasn't.
"As soon as I heard on the news [about the fake death] I contacted them and they got straight back to me and told me what was going on, and they apologised.
"It's serious on their part but I'm finding it a little bit funny because basically I'm not dead and no one has actually been harmed here.
"I'm in Galway now. I was playing for Ballybrack and I had to leave Dublin because my work offered me relocation to Galway so I moved from Dublin to Galway so that's why they used my name because I'm not there anymore."
Ballybrack have apologised for a "gross error of judgement" and have contacted the player to confirm his wellbeing, describing the incident as a "grave and unacceptable mistake".
In a statement posted on Facebook, the club said: "It has come to the attention of both the club, senior players and the management team that a gross error of judgement has occurred emanating from correspondence sent from a member of the senior set-up management team to the Leinster Senior League.
"This grave and unacceptable mistake was completely out of character and was made by a person who has been experiencing severe personal difficulties unbeknownst to any other members of the club."
They added: "At this stage we can only offer our sincere apologies to the Leinster Senior League, our opponents Arklow Town FC and the host of clubs and football people who made contact with us or offered messages of support in recent days."
The club added that "the person in question has been relieved of all footballing duties" following an emergency meeting.
Leinster Senior League chairman David Moran told RTE that the story "started to unravel" after they had enquired about offering support to the family.
"We wanted to show our sympathies and go to the Mass and maybe meet the family and see what we could do to help in this horrible situation," he said.
"And we were told he was flown back to Spain on the Saturday. Straight away, that rang alarm bells for us.
"We checked the hospitals, we checked everywhere. Nobody could find anything about this young fella. Obviously, some of his team-mates released stuff on social media saying he went back to Spain four weeks ago."
The league issued a statement saying they had acted in "good faith" after being informed of the death, but added: "The league would like to offer their sincerest apologies for any distress caused as a result of notifying clubs as to the demise of a valued player."
