Messages

T Fearon - But they are not in place. I blind man can see that. In some rare occassions as noted by contributors here a systems appears to be in place, however on the vast majority of cases it does not.

Well have you any proof/evidence? I believe that the vast majority of people on the gates taking cash are trustworthy gaels, appointed to that position due to their proven trustworthiness and reliability. Thats not to say that I believe there has never been a pound or two that has gone missing, but until I see concrete evidence of widespread or even significant fraud, I will not yield to the popular perception that they are all on the make.

In any event, how can we trust those who control the really big money at GAA Headquarters, provincial council, County or Club level, not to be misappropriating funds, awarding contracts to their cronies for backhanders etc

Who next do you want the spotlight to be fixed on? Church collectors, Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul Society?

This is the very point. While we have wholly inadequate processes then every person is under suspicion and it would be impossible for them to prove an innocence. Therefore the onus should be on the organisation at a national and central level as well at a provincial and county level to have systems and processes beyond reproach

Does anyone know who the auditors of the GAA are?

OK - I never buy or read that paper.

But I was approached by a Fermanagh Gael today who told me chapter and verse and quoted the Sunday World. Lets move on in everyones interest

Point taken - so I have deleted my comment. I suggest you do likewise.

But it is out there  in the public domain now due to the Sunday World - not my post.

By the way the INM who own the Sunday World have a history of never letting the truth get in the way of a salacious story

Guys  - I am delighted to see that I am not just the only one concerned about these matters, and as suggested above everyone is tarnished by poor systems as all volunteers operate under a cloud of suspicion.

This matter needs to be escalated and dealt with adequately. But it is a top down approach that is needed and can only work. Turkeys dont vote for Christmas so I do not see a club and in turn county sticking their head above the parapet here and drawing undue attention and ill will from other clubs and counties and dare I say it.... county officials.

You're just going to have to trust them. The most unaccountable and easily accesible money for years was in the clubs and especially in the North was no way anyone would call in the police if someone was dipping a wee bit here and a wee bit there until was a lot...  very difficult to deal with... (am speaking generally here.. it has happened tho)

I don't think anyone would call in the police to their club now either.

true enough... I wouldn't want to.

No, you run the risk of destroying the club in the eyes of the community, maybe permanently, and damaging the GAA. Nevermind the rows and fall out after it.  Far more worrying than the possibility of someone lifting a few pound while doing the gate imo

You are missing my point.

I am saying that the whole process is either corrupt or incompetent and the GAA at a central level is complicit is allowing it to continue. Moreover it opens the GAA to the prospect of a very damaging Tax investigation at some point which would be highly damaging.

I have it on very good authority that this was one of the very sacred cows that Howard Wells was trying to slay in the IFA and was ousted because of it. Continuing to do nothing about this leaves us very exposed as an organisation

T Fearon - if the tickets / stubbs issued go in sequential order then they cannot "disappear" or if they did it would be irrelevant

I disagree - it can be dealt with if there is a will to deal with it - as my experience in Toomevara goes to show.
however this is a National League fixture i.e. a central GAA competition. By my reckoning there were at least 5,000 people there last night. It was £13 or 15 Euro in each with reductions for students and OAPs and terrace. But at an average of 10 Euros per head there should be 50K brought in last night. However guys on the gate thake thier cut, then the host club take their cut then county officials take their cut then the official unofficial county board cut takes place before a sum is declared. Now this is the cynical view however with a transparent system then the cynics cannot be disproved.

I went along to the game last night in Newry between Down and Meath. It was a great spectacle under lights drawing a very large crowd for a Valentines weekend night. However yet again I was annoyed at the complete lack of accountability in the financial process of entrance fees.

There were long queues at the turn-styles at when I handed over £26 for two passes no tickets / stubs / receipts were handed back to me. How can they keep track of the cash in such circumstances? It is illegal not to issue receipts. No business would operate like this. I would have grave concerns over the audit trail of such cash receivables.

This is in direct contrast to a hurling game I attended in Toomevara back in the summer 2009. There for a county championship game there were groups of two officials. One official would take the money from you and issue 2 stubs. 15 yards further into the ground another official would take one of the stubbs from you leaving you with one stubb as a receipt. This gave me the confidence that steps were being taken to close the gaps in accountability and validatiion of attendances and cash receipts. However you go to a "County" game and absolutely nothing is in place. It leaves me to conclude that it is either corrupt management or incompetent management but either way it is pretty poor stuff.

Anyone got any other experiences from this weekend's National League games?

I have to agree about Down football

Every "outside" manager in the first and second division that I know of is getting cash. Tax free cash.

Its so prevalent that some of these guys better watch out for the investigation some day :-)

I do not know about Div 3 or 4 but I guess the pattern is the same. All bar two clubs in Division 1 are paying.

Its the greatest shame of modern GAA and it needs to be sorted out

Dundrumite - you cant make chicken soup out of chicken shit. Tell me why in the edition just one year later the so called 38 approved"psycologists" have been reduced to just 10 approved Institute of Sport Psychologists? See link below

http://www.irishsportpsych.com/site/attachments/011_psychworks2009.pdf

I have a masters criminal psychology - that does not make me a psychologist. I will say no more. Lets move on..


By the way tonight Down looked excellent from midfield forward but I fear it will be worth very little if wee James cannot unearth  a quality full back and corner backs while also a centre back is also required. Will be an interesting year

5 Sams - was he supporting your teams all those years? At any time?? Why does he attend?

Now there is a good idea. Lets list all the managers and show who are home club men (so are likely to be doing it free gratis) and those wandering carpetbaggers lol!

Well I respect your restraint! But from what I know you are not an endangered minority in respect to your experiences of Evil and Mini Me lol