Get set for a Franco-italian battle ...GAA style!
FRANCE and Italy clash today. It’s not a Euro 2016 soccer qualifier or an autumn rugby international but in what’s believed to be the first Gaelic football match between two national teams in almost a century. It will involve only two Ireland-born players – who have Italian citizenship through marriage. Tony Bass announced last week that he was stepping down as secretary of the European County board after a decade which saw continental GAA grow from 14 to 77 clubs, but the ex-Cuala man believes today’s encounter illustrates the potential of the game.
‘To have an International Gaelic football game with only two native Irish playing shows how far we have come,’ says Bass, a member of the Maastricht GAA club. ‘Within a few years, I believe we will have a European championship with national teams.’
That presents its own challenges. European GAA has worked to eradicate the practice of ‘weekend players’ coming over to play a game for a certain club. They have also worked with Croke Park on a rule so a student in a continental university can play for a local club without it affecting his status with his home team in Ireland.
‘The residency rule is something that needs to be looked at. I know the French players don’t want Irish lads who are working in Paris for six months to be playing for France. So we will need a more clearly-defined idea of who can play for teams.’
However, the two games this afternoon (there will be both men’s and women’s matches) demonstrate how Gaelic Games have extended beyond the usual parameters of the Irish working aboard. Although he doesn’t have exact figures, Bass reckons roughly 30 per cent of those playing Gaelic games on the continent have no Irish connection.
‘Seventy per cent of our players are of Irish extraction,’ he explains. ‘Ten years ago, it was probably 95 per cent or even higher. The first club was formed in Galicia four years ago. Now there are nine in that region and they have their own local leagues. One of our newest clubs is in Berlin and we currently have seven clubs in Germany. I think over the next five years, there will be 20 clubs in Germany.’
With clubs stretching from the Costa del Sol in Spain to inside the Arctic Circle [Finland’s Oulu], the board has a massive geographical spread to contend with.
‘Now that I am stepping back from the position, I can lobby more effectively for a full-time secretary. We have 77 clubs, that will grow to 100 soon, over 24 countries.
‘We are coming to a juncture now, within the Association, where the organisation and development of the games needs professionalism. In fairness to Liam O’Neill, he has said that the next step for the GAA is to develop internationally – we have to think where we see ourselves as an organisation, internationally, over the next 30 years.’
BASS feels the Sky deal has only scratched the surface in terms of how exposure can help the games to grow. ‘Look at World Series baseball, it is known all over the world and yet is a minority sport in almost every country. The All-Ireland championship has the potential to be something similar.
‘The real value of the Sky deal wasn’t Joey Barton tweeting about Kilkenny, it was thousands who had never seen GAA getting to see it. And that has opened up a new market. We need a re-think of how we promote and develop our games internationally.’
Reflecting on his 10 years at the helm, Bass is proud of the European board getting a seat at Central Council and the introduction of the European champions into the Leinster Junior Club championship.
But there is still work to do. ‘When I came over, I think .001 per cent of people on mainland Europe knew of GAA. That’s probably .003 per cent now but we should aim to get it up to 1 or 2 percent of the half a billion people living here.’