Soccer legend departs Mayo League after 50 years of service

One of Mayo’s soccer most outstanding servants has stood down from the Mayo’s League Management Committee after 50 years of service.

Swinford native Donal Benson, who made the committee known that he would be leaving his post at a previous meeting, will no longer part be a part of the Mayo League committee following the league’s annual general meeting on November 26 last in Umbro Park, Milebush.

The rest of the sitting committee was re-elected.

In a glittering career, Benson was a major figure in the development of Swinford FC, where he served in a number of roles on and off the field as a team manager and club official.

He also managed Mayo’s youth and Oscar Traynor teams, and until this year was the only manager to have reached the Oscar Traynor final back in 1981, with Joe Kelly becoming the second back in April.

A true groundbreaker, his biggest contribution came in 1994 with the implementation of a summer season, which has been in place ever since. The FAI have recently announced that summer football will be featured from top to bottom across the country by 2028, further proof that Benson was ahead of his time.

His services to the game were recognized in 2012 as one of the inaugural winners of the Henry Downes Service to Football award.

The Mayo League said that Benson was ‘not only has been a fantastic servant to Mayo football but to football as a whole, doing everything he could for the betterment of the sport’. 

Seamus Hughes, Mayo League chairman, said: “Donal’s contribution to our game here in Mayo can’t be measured and he has always been there ready and able to do whatever is required to help improve the game. Donal has also represented the league at Connacht and indeed at national level always working to get as much as possible for the Mayo League over the years.

“On a personal note, I’d like to thank Donal for all his help and advice he has passed onto me not only in my time as chairman but since I have come on the league. So, I’d just want to say a big thank you and wish you all the best for the future and remind you not to be a stranger here at Umbro Park as you are always welcome.”