CRITICISM WON’T IMPACT SKY DEAL – Ó FEARGHAIL

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail insists recent criticism of the GAA’s decision to sell TV rights to subscription broadcaster Sky will have no impact on future media rights deals, WRITES DONNCHADH BOYLE.

Former Offaly star Michael Duignan came out strongly against the decision recently, sparking debate about whether dealing with Sky, which holds rights to exclusive games until 2021, was the right thing to do.

However, the Cavan official insisted there was no appetite for change to their policy.

“Absolutely not,” Ó Fearghail (above) replied when asked if they would re-examine the way they sell media rights. “We don’t get any criticism from counties or clubs. We are very open in the GAA; there are no bonuses accruing to anyone, I am a volunteer president. The media rights is about that all that can go in can go (out.)

“Do we want to go back to the day, which the GAA used to do, to pay a media provider to cover our games? Those days are all over so there is no debate. There were 30 votes at Congress against the media rights deal. The debate is over.

“I met with the other Irish sporting bodies six weeks ago and they all said the same thing to me. They said that they wished they were as relevant to Irish society as we were. That is just the reality; people will always have a view on the GAA. I like debate; it is good as long as it is never nasty.” Ó Fearghail also insisted the budget over-run on the Páirc Uí Chaoimh project was “manageable”. It was confirmed that the €70m project had over-run by some €8m though recent reports suggested the figure could be closer to €15m.

“There has been an over-run. It is within what guys in that area would say is expected on a project of that size. It is very manageable. It is nothing that is perturbing anyone and it is manageable.”