Expenses claims 'unfair and untrue', says county board chairman

Claims by Westmeath footballer John Heslin that the county's senior footballers have not been paid expenses for the last four months have been rejected by the county board chairman, Sean Sheridan.

On Tuesday evening, St Loman's star Heslin went on Twitter to claim that some members of the Westmeath panel – who crashed out of the All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers last weekend – were owed four months in mileage expenses, and that players had no access to gym facilities at Columb Barracks, Mullingar.

"€3.5m for new stand in Cusack Park? W[est]meath players are 4 months w/o expenses and no access to gym. Investing in u[nder]-age more beneficial," he tweeted.

However, Westmeath's GAA chief slammed the remarks, describing them as both "unfair and untrue" in an interview with the Irish Examiner this morning.

"Sometimes we don't be flush with money coming in, but every player will get their expenses," Sheridan remarked.

"Every player gets an expense sheet at the end of the month. We are still waiting on the sheets for May and June expense claims from many players. How can we pay the players when they don't put in their claim?" he added.

"Players have to take responsibility. They needn't be saying they haven't been paid for months when that is untrue."

The Tyrrellspass clubman also criticised Heslin's comments about gym access, insisting that Columb Barracks is open "every morning and evening".

"It is a state of the art gym and we spent €60,000-€70,000 kitting out that gym. John has used that gym regularly," he said.