THROW BOOK AT ROGUE BOSSES

CPA insist GAA have power to kick out the rule breakers

CLUB PLAYERS ASSOCIATION secretary Tommie Kenoy has urged the GAA to throw the book at brazen county bosses who are ignoring training rules.

And he believes the CPA’s recommendation, which they formally sent to GAA Director General Tom Ryan on Friday, could hand the GAA the powers to do just that.

Kenoy and CPA chairman Micheal Briody signed off on the proposal to declare July 1 to September 14 an official closed period for county training.

The GAA’s road map for returning to activity already states that county teams aren’t allowed to train until September 14.

But anecdotal evidence suggests that directive is being widely ignored with the CPA claiming to have ‘first-hand on the ground information that these breaches are happening’.

One manager of a leading club football team, that possesses a number of All-Ireland winning players, told Irish Sunday MirrorSport that his players have effectively been snatched from him. The CPA’s recommendation is that any county manager found to have breached guidelines receive a ‘24-weeks suspension’ and his team banned ‘from all 2020 competitions’.

Kenoy told Irish Sunday MirrorSport: “The Club Players Association held a Zoom meeting on Wednesday night and it would be fair to say there’s a deep level of frustration among the executive about the situation and where this is all going. “It was agreed that we’d make the proposal in an attempt to tackle the situation head on whereby managers are forcing players to train with county teams and not with their clubs.

“It’s against the guidelines, and totally against the spirit of the guidelines, because that period up to September 14 was clearly set aside for clubs.

“What we’re asking is that the rule which already exists in the Official Guide be amended to give the GAA Management Committee the power to suspend any person in charge of a team who blocks inter-county players playing fully with their clubs, and to throw that team out of competitions for this year.”

A Special Congress of the GAA in Mid-April, called to deal with the Covid19 crisis, agreed to hand extra powers to its Management Committee.

The CPA believes the Management Committee now has the authority to make the necessary amendments to Rule 6.45, to protect the integrity of the current club window.

In its correspondence to the GAA, the CPA urged them to ‘protect the interests of club players during a period that has been specifically set aside for club games’.

Former Roscommon player and chairman Kenoy, who was at the heart of the drive to overturn Rule 42 in 2005, said improving the lot of club players remains their priority.

He said: “What’s happening right now is flying in the face of what’s been agreed. Two things need to happen from here; there needs to be leadership from the top and the grass roots need to take possession of this situation. Those two things occurring would be the ideal combination.

“I was playing with Roscommon and also playing soccer in 1971 when the ban on playing foreign sports was deleted. That happened because the grassroots took possession of that situation at the time and mandated their people at Congress to change the rule. Something similar needs to happen now.

“The fixtures issue isn’t obviously as clear cut. The foreign games rule was a solitary rule, same with Rule 42, it’s not as clear cut with fixtures but it’s obvious the overall national games programme has to be restructured. A new structure needs to be put in place which allows club and county to comfortably co-exist.”