Jim McGuinness has described the furore over the venue for Donegal's All-Ireland final homecoming as "disrespectful" to both Donegal and Mayo.

While insisting that the controversy, which was sparked by reports that Letterkenny want to stage the homecoming ahead of Donegal town, won't affect his players, the Donegal manager believes it will provide Mayo with ample motivation ahead of the September 23 showdown.

"I think what's going on is very disrespectful to our own players, first and foremost, and then, obviously, to the Mayo players," he is quoted as saying in The Irish Independent.

"It's something that shouldn't have happened. It's in bad taste. We have a job to do and my job is to try and get the boys ready and the boys' job is to try and go out and perform - nothing should get in the way of that.

"To be putting a story like that out there and to be discussing it takes away from our job. Obviously, if James Horan (Mayo) is talking about it in his dressing room, could you blame him? But, as I say, these things happen and they're outside your control.

"We're in a process at the moment of trying to get our head around Mayo and get the information on Mayo and paint a picture for our lads in relation to them and start coaching that. We had time last week to focus on ourselves. This week will probably be about ourselves and, towards the end of the week, about Mayo and then it will go back to ourselves closer to the game.

"And, at that stage, you just hope that all the information that you're giving to the lads, verbally and on the coaching side of it, is taken to a level that they can go out and deliver that game plan on Sunday two weeks. For anything to get in the way of that annoys me on a level."

McGuinness added: "There's always something you have to deal with and it won't affect us, which is the most important thing. Nor will the hype affect us. It doesn't matter how much bunting is up here, and flags and everything else, our job is very simple.

"It's the same job we've done for the last two years for every single game." Tweet

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