Prospect of no income cover for players
The GAA’s Player Injury Fund will not cover players for loss of professional earnings in 2021 in order to “secure the future viability of the scheme”. This point was debated at last Wednesday night’s County Board virtual meeting, and it has major ramifications for the club players in our midst.
The fund, which has been in been existence in various guises since 1929, is unique in that it offers all registered playing members what is effectively insurance cover for serious injuries.
The amount that the fund might pay out is not large - €300 per week in 2020, up to a maximum of 26 weeks, but while that will not pay anybody’s mortgage, it is meant to defray some of the expenses, if unfortunately there is an injury resulting in absence from work.
Clubs pay into the injury fund based on the level of teams that they enter in the various competitions, but with the scheme has been running at an annual loss which has been covered by the GAA moving gate receipt money across.
It costs €1000 to register an adult team for the year for insurance purposes. A player can be on more than one team, ie hurling and football.
The club submits a list of active playing members to be covered by the scheme. The cut-off for this is 31st March every year. €2 is charged per player. If your name isn’t submitted by the deadline, you’re not insured, you can’t play. Some clubs submit all players who might play in a given year, and then chase players for whatever amount the club has decided on to be the dues. Other clubs only process a player when they pay up, putting the onus on the player.
In 2019, counties paid in €6.2m to cover the cost of claims, but the total outgoing for the year was just over €8.1m. The GAA paid in €2.5m from gate receipt money to make up the shortfall, having moved €2.1m across in 2018. 30 per cent of annual claims made to the fund were to cover the loss of earnings, with the other 70 per cent spent on direct treatment of injuries such as surgery.
While the injury fund will continue to exist and will cover the cost of injury claims, the GAA has always encouraged players to have their own private insurance and that the scheme was only intended to be a secondary cover for any holes in private insurance.
There is no legal obligation on the GAA to provide an Injury Fund. Risk is an inherent factor in sport, as in life. When members voluntarily take part in club activities they accept the risks that such participation may bring, but that would be to take a very cold cynical look at the issue. It will offer cover for a certain amount of costs, but will only cover expenses that are unrecoverable from other sources (eg VHI, etc. for medical costs) - for loss of wages the first step is to apply to social welfare, which doesn’t pay anything for the first 6 days anyway.
Cork GAA Central Council Delegate, Tracey Kennedy is canvassing other counties for support, as this has the potential to be a major issue within clubs. People are stretched this year as well, as clubs are, but a decision on this topic will have to be made soon.
SOCIAL MEDIA – A GOOD NEWS STORY OR THE BANE OF OUR LIVES?
Social media is now omnipresent and has not only reshaped the communication industry, but has also redefined the ways in which we communicate and express. Social media websites constantly engage people in some or other activity and encourage people to get on the bandwagon of trending activities.
We have embraced it so tenaciously that it’s now an integral part of our lives. Not only individuals, but also businesses and governments are utilising social media platforms for constant engagement with the masses. Though social media offers a global platform to share and express, its constant engagement is affecting individuals and society as a whole.
Last week, we saw the relentless hounding of Gordon Elliott, who did something very, very stupid, but surely the big story should have been the Davy Stockbrokers story.
What Gordon did was stupid, what the personnel in Davy did was cold, calculating and all for greed – there is a difference.
At a time when banks are treating people with disdain, better is needed from our banks and lending institutions.
GENDER BLIND
Last Monday was International Women’s Day and Killavullen GAA hope that all women, of any age were proud of themselves, and proud of their achievements on the day. Women have made remarkable differences in the GAA, but surely the issue is that we should be blind to a person’s gender and treat all the same.
That means to be blind to any person’s or team’s gender when they request training space, or pitch allocations, or funding or resources.
Lidl have a very strong campaign which is trying to strike the forceful message that women are treated unfairly and to level the playing pitch. Let’s live out that message and for all teams to be treated equally.
PROPOSED BLUE WAY FROM MALLOW
Cork County Council recently announced that their proposal for a blueway from Mallow to Killavullen has been granted some funding from Central government, to the tune of €200,000. That sounds a considerable sum, but we await the fine details in Killavullen as to what that exactly entails, so more information will follow in the coming weeks.
CLUB SPONSOR
Howard Farm Feeds.