Money is Destroying the Game

[Teo Lurley]

The 3 remaining sides in this years All Ireland football championship are 3 highly funded, professionally prepared teams. All 3 have spent huge sums on getting to this stage of the competition. Their resources come from many different sources. Most will know of the high profile sponsorship deals and fundraising expeditions and of one of the counties getting 1.5 million euro yearly off regular GAA folk like you and me to fund the development of their underage players.

The source of their resources needs to be looked at but in this thread I'm focusing on the results of the high level funding and the impact it's having on the game. It is my opinion that if it is let continue it will finish the game of Gaelic football as we know it. The money available to these teams is not just giving them a hugely unfair advantage but it's making teams question the point of competing with them. The only conclusion to this madness will be either the cash rich teams splitting away from the rest to form their own competition or the rest splitting away from them.

Let's have a look at the impact the money is having on teams and competitions already. In Munster Kerry are dominant, nothing new here you say. The difference between now and before is that teams like Tipperary and Clare are putting in huge efforts to improve their standards. Their growth is being stunted at senior level because of whippings they get from Kerry. Let's not forget where Kerry were. No All Ireland since 2009, very little talent coming through, people were even predicting that it would be a long time before Kerry were at the top again. What changed? They got a shed load of money and trained their team to a professional level.

The Connacht championship is being dominated by one side, Mayo are likely to set a record for the number of Connacht titles they win in a row. They've handed out numerous beatings to all teams including a big county in Galway. Similar to Kerry, they are also halting the growth of teams like Roscommon who're putting in huge underage work and beating teams by 20+ points wont be helping them improve. GAA men and women in Leitrim are begging to be put into another competition even, they see no point in entering the Connacht championship and why should they? There's no way they can compete with the money Mayo have available to them.

The Leinster championship is dead. Dublin have won all but 1 of the last 10 Leinster championships. Teams now are beaten before they even get on the pitch. They hand out regular beatings to everyone. No one has got within 7 points of them since 2013. Again here teams are trying to get out of the Leinster championship, there's no point in competing in it. Dublin just use it as a warm up exercise, try out a few players and build up fitness for the later stages. This is a result of years of millions being given to fund the growth of their players and millions being pumped into their senior teams preparation.

Many counties around the country don't have their best players playing for them because the interest is not there. Why train all year to get destroyed in your provincial championship? As I've pointed out, some counties want to be put into a separate competition while the money rich counties are sick of wasting their time beating the poor counties so talk of throwing them into a losers competition is growing. Do we want an elite league where you need money to enter their competition? Is this what the GAA is meant to be about? Also as we seen last Sunday, these teams have no respect for the game. They're all about win at all costs like all professional teams.

Let's call a spade a spade here. This is financial doping, the teams remaining are buying their way to the top. I've already pointed out some of the results that has and will happen because of this but the ultimate conclusion is the game will go professional in these counties. We already see it with players barely ever working, their whole diet/lifestyle/daily routine being looked after by highly paid professionals. This has to be stopped.

The question of how we stop it can be answered later, first we have to let it be known that we want it stopped. There's too much silence on this issue. It barely ever gets mentioned in the national media. Whenever it does it's always shouted down by the money rich counties. Dublin GAA went mad when it was suggested that their yearly 1.5 million budget they get from the GAA should be looked at. We can't let this go on. It will destroy the inter county game, within a decade it will be finished. They'll be an elite league of about 8 playing professionally. We can't let this happen. Let's stop it now!

[Nihilist]

What are your exact figures for Mayo, Dublin and Kerry?
Back up the claims with factual figures and not some nonsense like "everyone knows" etc....

[screenexile]

What are your exact figures for Mayo, Dublin and Kerry?
Back up the claims with factual figures and not some nonsense like "everyone knows" etc....

Also many Counties have wealthy businessmen to tap into. Just because other counties don't have the ability to tap into it like others do well that's their own problem really! Donegal was one of the worst hit counties during the recession yet McGuinness was able to get funding to prepare his team to the highest level!

[The Aristocrat]

Good post Teo, I agree with every word , your doing sterling work with this agenda. Teo Lurley, ever hear of a former player from Laois called Leo Turley.

When small teams can't compete they blame it on finance instead at looking at their own county structures in place, teams need to follow the Kerry, Dublin, Mayo and Tyrone structures, bringing the game to the next level and other teams falling behind is their own failure alone.

[Nihilist]

I can tell you that Mayo have a panel this year of 32 only. Lots of guys who were in Horan's squads were left off by H&C.
E.g. only 2 goalies. Most top teams would have 3 in the squad. No room for 3 in Mayo as they budget is too tight.

Add that to the expense of playing late into the Summer and Autumn and you can add on thousands. Finally I don't know why Mayo are being compared to Dublin and Kerry. I did a check of the Elverys stock price there and found it was $0.00.

Elverys is not a global company like Kerry Group or AIG pumping whatever revenue is required into the setup.

[Teo Lurley]

What are your exact figures for Mayo, Dublin and Kerry?
Back up the claims with factual figures and not some nonsense like "everyone knows" etc....

And how do you think I'd have access to the exact figures? We know Kerry raised 4 or 5 million in America nd Britain, Cake Curran said Mayo were spending 12k a week on their team, I think his estimation was low. We can be more sure about Dublin. Their aig deal is well known, we can't know for sure what they get off their 11 or so other sponsors but some of them are big names. We know what they get off the GAA yearly because the GAA release their accounts.
If you don't have a clue about this topic then maybe you should do some research and come back then.

[Teo Lurley]

What are your exact figures for Mayo, Dublin and Kerry?
Back up the claims with factual figures and not some nonsense like "everyone knows" etc....

Also many Counties have wealthy businessmen to tap into. Just because other counties don't have the ability to tap into it like others do well that's their own problem really! Donegal was one of the worst hit counties during the recession yet McGuinness was able to get funding to prepare his team to the highest level!

Wealthy businessmen are part of the problem. All finances need to be looked at. Do we want everyone competing on a level playing field or not?

[Teo Lurley]

Good post Teo, I agree with every word

Thanks.

[Hereiam]

Is Ulster not worth a mention 

[Teo Lurley]

I can tell you that Mayo have a panel this year of 32 only. Lots of guys who were in Horan's squads were left off by H&C.
E.g. only 2 goalies. Most top teams would have 3 in the squad. No room for 3 in Mayo as they budget is too tight.

Add that to the expense of playing late into the Summer and Autumn and you can add on thousands. Finally I don't know why Mayo are being compared to Dublin and Kerry. I did a check of the Elverys stock price there and found it was $0.00.

Elverys is not a global company like Kerry Group or AIG pumping whatever revenue is required into the setup.

You're comparing Mayo with Dublin and Kerry, I'm comparing Mayo with Leitrim and Roscommon. There's no doubt that Dublin are far ahead in this financial doping. That doesn't mean that other counties should go unnoticed too. It all needs to be looked at seriously. Counties are going into huge debt just trying to keep up with the big boys.

[Teo Lurley]

Is Ulster not worth a mention 

I was giving the Ulster boyos a pass but you still complain. There's reasons I wont be mentioning British funding.

[AZOffaly]

Underneath the hyperbole, Teo has a point. It's extremely hard to stomach lads on the Sunday Game saying smaller counties should 'get their houses in order'. That's an easy thing to say from an ivory tower, when those counties don't have money for coaches, or to run effective development academies. Spending on senior squads is crazy, and counties need to be held to account on money they are wasting on external managers or the like, but at the end of the day, if you don't have enough money to maximise the resources you do have, it's just not fair to be told to get your house in order.

[Nihilist]

I can tell you that Mayo have a panel this year of 32 only. Lots of guys who were in Horan's squads were left off by H&C.
E.g. only 2 goalies. Most top teams would have 3 in the squad. No room for 3 in Mayo as they budget is too tight.

Add that to the expense of playing late into the Summer and Autumn and you can add on thousands. Finally I don't know why Mayo are being compared to Dublin and Kerry. I did a check of the Elverys stock price there and found it was $0.00.

Elverys is not a global company like Kerry Group or AIG pumping whatever revenue is required into the setup.

You're comparing Mayo with Dublin and Kerry, I'm comparing Mayo with Leitrim and Roscommon. There's no doubt that Dublin are far ahead in this financial doping. That doesn't mean that other counties should go unnoticed too. It all needs to be looked at seriously. Counties are going into huge debt just trying to keep up with the big boys.

I would say that money is not the main problem for the likes of Leitrim. It's population and they simply don't have a density of players large enough to compete against the likes of Mayo.  Also if you are to reason it out properly there are several areas that need to be looked at for lesser counties to have a chance. See the following.

Back Door: One of the big problems for the smaller counties is the back door. Smaller counties may have one shot at their larger neighbours. And that may come off in June on their home patch as the big teams who aspire to wining the All Ireland are now being primed to peak in August and September. But everyone now is guaranteed a second chance up to the quarters so it's not as big a deal for top teams to lose in June as hey can conceivably still get through to August via the back door. The bottom line is that the back door has benefited the bigger teams more than the smaller teams.

Home patch: Dublin play all games in Croker. It's unfair as it's their home pitch. Remember they play all League games there as well. Dubs will say it's not but if so why then do they always get to warm up in front of the hill? Anyway it would have been much more of a spectacle if Dublin had to leave and go to Longford or Westmeath this year. The Leinster Council at the top are driving this though.   

The League format: Mickey Harte said that no team outside Div 1 of the League will win the All Ireland anymore. And he's been proven right to date. Div 1 of the League is like having championship football in February. These are top games and really intense. No comparison to Div 3 or Div 4. The knock on effect is that players playing at this level and this tempo know and get insight into the effort, intensity, strength and conditioning and all the rest that is required for later on in the year. They like it and will put in all the hours possible to try and be better than their counterparts in Div 1.  This has serious results for later on in the year against so called "lesser" teams not used to playing at that intensity.

The overall point is that it is not just Money that is the main difference between teams. Although yes I would agree it is a factor.

[Mayo4Sam]

I think there's two issues here that are be muddled in together.

Yes money is a huge issue, I'll leave that to one side

I'm going to assume Mayo and Galway spend the same amount on football, Roscommon realistically not much less (if you pro-rata out given we're there until September the last few years)
The reason mayo are more successful is largely down to James Horan putting in place a professional structure where Galway clearly haven't. We were beaten by Sligo and Longford before he came along.
Success breeds success, everyone in Mayo has a mayo Jersey, a training top, a jacket, it's all money coming in but it's all due to on the field success, we get huge crowds at our games for the same reason. Money follows that.

[deiseach]

It would be nice to have a reasonable conversation about money in the GAA. It's not going to happen though when one party to the conversation always demonstrates naked hostility towards one county in particular.