Micheal Clifford

No stopping money train as GAA closes in on pay for play

THERE is a great line to be dragged from a dusty vault in the House of Commons which tickles both the ribs and the truth. ‘A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled,’ once claimed the wonderfully named Sir Barnett Cocks, who served as the clerk to British democracy over half a century ago.

He nailed a truth, one which should resonate down the polished wooden corridors of Croke Park where that muffled sound you are hearing right now is the last breath of another committee report.

The difference, and it is not a subtle one, is that if a committee can’t get its kicks out of self-asphyxiation then it can always rely on those who commissioned it, in the first instance, to get two firm hands around its neck and squeeze.

Towards 2034 – the 150th anniversary of the GAA, is the deliberations of a committee commissioned by Aogán Ó Fearghail and delivered in January prior to him leaving his presidential office. Three months on, it is still gathering dust.

It could be worse; it might have been heading for the fire but for it being leaked to the Irish Times last month.

For the majority who get their thrills from the action on the pitch, it is hard to get excited about proposed changes to governance such as abolishing the provincial councils in favour of a more streamlined structure that would facilitate executive decision making. We absolutely get that. This column does not want to sup at the ale house either where that kind of chinstroking exhibitionism passes for bar counter banter.

But these things matter in real ways. For example, if there is to ever to be a roadmap to end the inequitable snooze-fest which passes for the provincial championships, that is the only way it gets done.

But it is unlikely that a discussion – and after all that is what this report was designed to facilitate – on democratic structures is what held Ó Fearghail back from publishing prior to leaving office.

However, the headline-grabbing proposal that in 16 years, inter-county players and managers should be in receipt of an ‘allowance’ which will recognise ‘their value to the Association and their enormous commitment to their sport,’ might just have been too hot a topic to deal with for an association still clinging hard to its amateur ethos.

Yet this is a chat that the association really needs to have.

It can be argued that it is the thin end of the wedge, but that wedge has been on the table, as well as under it, for a long time.

That was the argument by those who opposed the GAA’s support for the GPA’s successful campaign for inter-county grants, and for the money – over €6 million annually – its allocates to that players’ body for the benefit of less than 2 per cent of its playing membership.

And it has been there for an age in the black economy where managers have

ANDY MORAN is as straight a shooter from the lips as he is for the posts, and his judgement that it will take a team to hit the 20-point mark to have a shot at beating Dublin is on the money. Admittedly, given Dublin have only lost two games that mattered in the last five and a half years, evidence is scarce, but both times, Kerry (0-20, 2017 Allianz League final), and Donegal (3-14, 2014 All-Ireland semi-final) hit that mark. More than just Moran and Mayo should be setting that as a target this summer if they are serious about beating the champions.

trousered cash for services rendered.

But for all that the GAA is squeamish when it comes to talking cash – for example was it not perverse, in all the noise created by the appointment of a new director general, that there was no talk of remuneration package to the chief office holder of the largest sporting association in the country?

But nothing exercises quite like the notion of pay for play.

That is understandable for an obvious reason; the fear is that it would tamper with the dynamic where the reward in the GAA is playing for place rather than pay.

And there is a crudeness to measuring ‘value’, the Dublin footballer who is putting bums on seats right through the summer is worth much more than his Leitrim counterpart who has been long dispatched.

That principle, which is already reflected in the state grant scheme, would have to be built into any defined allowance figure.

Whether that works is not the issue, but the need to have an honest conversation is.

And it would be utter folly for the GAA to duck the subject at a time when it is hurtling right down the road at them.

When the giddiness of the new championship formats in both codes subsides, the logistics will have to be addressed.

It is quite likely that the current expense system which this report concluded was ‘neither equitable nor fit-for-purpose’ will have its shortcomings exposed in the months and years ahead.

In both the Munster and Leinster hurling championships, some players will play four games inside 21 days and in an environment where attention to detail is king, recovery could place the kind of demands which could reach inside players wallets.

The same applies in football, where those involved in the Super 8s, and who advance to the All-Ireland semi-finals, will play four games inside five weeks.

For those, who arrive at the same destination through the qualifiers that could translate into seven games inside eight weeks.

Outside of injuries, the need for players to embrace the three Rs of recovery (replenish, refuel and rest), could see them opt, or perhaps be even pressurised into taking time off work between games.

There is a point where commitment will be tested and for many torching annual leave or, for the selfemployed, wages could be it.

And there is no going back on this – indeed the likelihood is that with more teams wanting to be exposed to the same level of competition as the elite, there will be more games for more players and less time to recover.

While proposals can be strangled quietly behind committee doors, protests on green fields are a far more difficult proposition to gag.