Sponsored players are a threat to GAA’s ethos
THIS week, Lee Chin was out and about discussing how he lives as a full-time GAA player off the back of three different sponsors. Lee is a fine player, a great ambassador for his county and a role model for kids in Wexford and beyond. But the idea of full-time sponsored players is a dangerous direction for the Association to take.
Sport is very fleeting. Sponsors and the corporate world are only interested when you are at the top of the game, which can only be four or five years, perhaps six. In that sense, being a full-time player will be very unstable,
And from the players’ point of view, it can be a fraught existence. What happens if they suffer a longterm injury, such as a cruciate ligament injury? They are off the field, and out of the public eye, for a whole year. Their profile will suffer. The corporate world is unforgiving and ruthless. Will they stand by a player as they go through arduous rehabilitation?
Chin missed a couple of League games for Wexford through injury. He claimed in the interview that he missed having something else to occupy his mind in that time. And that’s the thing. There is a different psyche for someone who is a full-time sportsman, and the psyche is even different to a county player.
It is creating elitism within the GAA and in that respect, it is a threat to the ethos that underpins the Association. The full-time player is something that has crept in over the past few years. Kieran Donaghy, Darran O’Sullivan and Karl Lacey have all done it at various times.
But they weren’t as explicit as Chin has being. They simply took a break from their jobs and careers to sustain their bodies and ward off long-term injury. I don’t think it lasted too long.
My biggest concern is that it’s copper-fastening the idea of elitism which has crept into the Association ever since player endorsement was allowed within the amateur status over 20 years ago. On the face of things, there are no more than a couple of dozen players across the country who are consistently rolled out. And these are the players at the very top of the tree.
Footballers from Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Tyrone, the hurlers of Galway, Tipperary and Kilkenny. They are the blue-chip players that sponsors want. But this is taking that elitism a step further — and it is a dangerous step to take.
Where about the footballer from Wicklow, Waterford or London? Where is their opportunity? Where are their personal sponsors? Are those teams in Division 4 expected just to rely on volunteerism.
Technically, it is not pay-for-play as his services are being used for promotion.
But this opens another can of worms. Is Chin at the behest of the company that is sponsoring him? Does that sponsor have more control over the player than the team manager does? If there is a big event on the weekend of a Leinster hurling final involving Wexford, will he be expected to attend that?
Another worrying development in the last number of years is that the only time that media get to talk to GAA players now is when they are promoting some brand or company. And there have been cases in the past where guys are allowed to turn up and only be pictured, not questioned. It is going further down the route of county players living in a bubble — and moving further away from the ethos of the Association.
I see no positives in this development, it takes the elitism that has crept in over the last while to a new level. That one player is able to attract three personal sponsors shows how strong a brand the GAA has become — but is the next stage that players get agents to seek out these companies and firms.
This is heading down a perilous path for the GAA and once this train has taken off, it won’t be easily halted. That will not be for the good of the Association.
One of the tenets of the GAA is that every player in every county is competing for the same prize. And they all have an equal chance. But this shows that some players are more equal than others.
With the inception of the Super 8s, it is going to generate more sponsorship possibilities for players. And the scope for more fulltime players in the future is going to be increased.
This is a challenge for the new director-general, as we await his pronouncement for his vision of where the GAA is going to go over the next few years.
It will need careful management from Tom Ryan and those at Croke Park. The new President John Horan has already claimed that the development squads need to be looked at as they are kick-starting elitism at Under-15 and U16 level.
Full-time players with their own personal sponsors is rubberstamping that elitism. I am not comfortable with it and hope this is examined carefully by Croke Park.
To me, it is a step too far.
It is taking the elitism a step further