Formal recognition for GPA by GAA

[Tatler Jack]

Did not misrepresnt you in any way Zulu.

[Zulu]

you seem to like to pidgeon hole everybody who holds more traditional views than yourself. I have no problem with other views Zulu.

I would regard the above as much a misrepresentation of me as anything I've said of you, especially the implication that that I have aproblem with other views.

[Bud Wiser]

There must be no more Congress meetings being held if all can be decided between the six of them.  Anyone ever heard of Diamond Pitch Markers ?


I'm off now to form a new company or two.  How does the  GP(M)A sound. The Gaelic Players Pitch Markers Association.  Or maybe the NHA, Net Hangers Association.  We can have the Diamond GPMA Awards night in Matt The Threshers in Birdhill for the poor ould devil who went out in the pissings of rain for the last few years and marked the pitches with the straightest lines. Where is his recognition?  I could chew nails this minute !

[Rossfan]

Good to see common sense coming to the fore on this issue.

I see the usual suspects are heading towards the "end of the GAA as we know it" position again.

[DuffleKing]

This was an inevitible step and one cooney obviously wanted to get it out of the way early. The association can only be stronger for working more closely with IC players.

I'll ask again, for emphasis - how will the GPA represent the thousands of club players when their specific charter is to further the lot of inter-county players, which in a zero-sum situation, with finite resources, can only be at the expense of those club players?

It works perfectly fine in almost every other sport in the world.

I don't see how the fact that club footballers and other volunteer sections of our association don't have an individual voice as reason to deprive IC footballers of one?

[Tatler Jack]

Good to see common sense coming to the fore on this issue.

I see the usual suspects are heading towards the "end of the GAA as we know it" position again.

I see the usual suspects who generalise are still with us. As I said before heckling is an art form arond Elphin.

I am not saying this is the end of the GAA as we know it but it will have consequences.  It  will be interesting to see what recognition amounts to and if is either an attempt to capitulate to Dessies threats or to sideline him.

[DuffleKing]

Good to see common sense coming to the fore on this issue.

I see the usual suspects are heading towards the "end of the GAA as we know it" position again.

I see the usual suspects who generalise are still with us. As I said before heckling is an art form arond Elphin.

I am not saying this is the end of the GAA as we know it but it will have consequences.  It  will be interesting to see what recognition amounts to and if is either an attempt to capitulate to Dessies threats or to sideline him.

What do you (sensibly) forsee these consequences being?

[INDIANA]

Good to see common sense coming to the fore on this issue.

I see the usual suspects are heading towards the "end of the GAA as we know it" position again.

I'm just waiting for you to turn this into another county border debate. Shouldn't be long now.

[boojangles]

Good to see common sense coming to the fore on this issue.

I see the usual suspects are heading towards the "end of the GAA as we know it" position again.

I see the usual suspects who generalise are still with us. As I said before heckling is an art form arond Elphin.

I am not saying this is the end of the GAA as we know it but it will have consequences.  It  will be interesting to see what recognition amounts to and if is either an attempt to capitulate to Dessies threats or to sideline him.

What do you (sensibly) forsee these consequences being?

I have often asked about what peoples fears of the GPA are based on. What are the consequences of todays announcement? We could be a while waiting for a reply. The paranoia towards the GPA in most cases seems unfounded to me.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Cooney should have told them to go forth and fornicate with themselves.


It is another step on the road to a two tier playing system. One amateur, the other professional.

[Pangurban]

Disgraceful decision, and a stab in the back to the official players reps. within the association, think Jarlath Burns was their Chairman. We are becoming a less democratic association as previously a decision like this would have been taken at Congress. The only one who will eventually gain from this is Dessie Farrel

[RedandGreenSniper]

I'm not against a players rep in principle but am very against Dessie Farrell, Donal Og and their motives. And it wouldn't be too much to ask for a bit of respect for people who have genuine fears about the future direction of the GAA.

[Bud Wiser]

The GPA were in the manure and they were out of money according to their accounts and Cooney bailed them out.  There demands were: 
.... that a comprehensive agreement will be finalised over the course of the coming year but no later than 31st October 2010. Ultimately, the comprehensive agreement will come from the experience of the parties working together. The final agreement will include greater detail on long term funding of the GPA and on protocols relating to its representative role. In the meantime, the following has been agreed:

(a) The GAA will provide the GPA with €1,100,000.00 for the year 2010 to fund player welfare projects. This funding will be in addition to existing GAA commitments to player welfare.

(b) The GAA will provide the GPA with €250,000.00 towards its administraion costs for 2009.

(c) The GAA will provide the GPA with €250,000.00 towards its administration costs for 2010.

(d) The sums mentioned at (a), (b) and (c) will be paid on the basis of an agreed process which will involve advance evaluation of all projects and costs as well as evaluation subsequent to the expenditure of the funds.

A.  This is in complete difference to what Cooney said and at the very least it is confusing, ie, "the GPA have been around for 10 years and we acknowledge them, the players welfare will be looked after by the GAA, kinda using the GPA as a conduit" while at the same time saying "The GAA will look after the players welfare as instructed by the GPA or there will be a strike and because we have now entered an agreement with the GPA clubs or county boards have no say in this matter anymore because along with looking after the players we are given them One Million and One Hundred Thousand Euro to allegedly spend on the same thing, players welfare!

B.  The GAA will bail out the Players Management Company so they can pay their Vat and taxes and wages while the man with the pitch marker gets frig all not to mention minor or U21 players who got as far as fringe players on their county teams. 

C.  The GAA will provide the GPA with 250,000 towards its running costs for 2010 !   Not sure about this but it could be towards the pension funds of the GPA adminstrators but what are the running costs?  Are they for offices in Drumcondra while a group who are being declared by Cooney to be an integral part of te GAA could have any size of office among thousands of square meters of office space and a conference centre at HQ?  Will some of the 250,000 go towards paying the GPA's membership of the Elite Players Association so they can attend meetings in such important places such as their fellow members offices of the English Cricket Union in Primrose Hill in London?

None of these decisions should have been taken and no promises made by anybody in the GAA HQ without one single issue being agreed at Congress.  Cooney has bowed, not to the GPA but to media pressure because papers like the Independent were up to their neck in it with the GPA and in the last year almost every single reporter was promoting the GPA. along with printing the GPA Magazine.

The GAA as we know it is lost.  Next year we will have three or four Kerry lads saying they can't decide wheter they prefer Bondi Beach to Banna Strand and they are considering given up professional football.  Great, take a wad of notes out of the One Million, One Hundred Thousand, fly them in for the All-Ireland Final, let them dance on tables, even write books and give them a few hundred in their arse pockets for 'their welfare' and make sure the get back in time for the AFL.

Mr Cooney would have been better engaged with his time if he wrote a letter to each county board and said:

Dear Secretary,

Because of significant additional funding we have received from concerts, rugby and soccer matches we are now in a position to offer assistance to any of your clubs members who have retired from the games but who are suffering from long term health issues that require ongoing medical care. This does not apply to current players as they are looked after under current structures in place but ius designed to help players who have long term recurring problems resulting in medical expenses.

Yours...

My view is that Mr Cooney should still write that letter before, without authority, he signs cheques for 1,350,000 euro to the GPA.  I know a number of players who have long term injuries, I know one who is currently undergoing operations who is long retired and neither the All-Star medal he has or the other medals he has won't pay for his ongoing medical bills.

[Bud Wiser]

Good to see common sense coming to the fore on this issue.

I see the usual suspects are heading towards the "end of the GAA as we know it" position again.

I see the usual suspects who generalise are still with us. As I said before heckling is an art form arond Elphin.

I am not saying this is the end of the GAA as we know it but it will have consequences.  It  will be interesting to see what recognition amounts to and if is either an attempt to capitulate to Dessies threats or to sideline him.

What do you (sensibly) forsee these consequences being?

I have often asked about what peoples fears of the GPA are based on. What are the consequences of todays announcement? We could be a while waiting for a reply. The paranoia towards the GPA in most cases seems unfounded to me.

The paranoia you refer to was caused soley by the GPA when they were formed and how they were formed.  When they came on the scene first they arrived cross dressed between bullies and the new suited corporate arm of the GAA.  Interestingly, part of their agreement that they have now reached with the GAA states that:

Any future commercial activities undertaken by the GPA outside of those they are already committed to will be subject to approval under an agreed mechanism to ensure minimum impact on existing sponsors and interference in sponsorship agreements already in place.
They had no qualms about approaching their main sponsors a Bank and Insurance company that directly conflicted with the GAA's main sponsor at the time when they the GAA, were under pressure from the PC brigade to drop Guinness from sponsoring the hurling championship.  Secondly, if there is paranoia about the P word then there is good reason for some of us to be wary of the GPA turning our games into professional sport.  Why for example do they see the need to be members of a professional body like the Elite Players Association of Europe???    Tell me, what in the name of jaysus have DJ Carey, Liam Hassett and Brian Corcoran got doing walking up the steps of the Englkish Cricket Association on Primrose Hill in London got to discuss that is in common with some poor fella running around a field of muck in Laois or Carlow with a banded up hurl while he waits to buy a new one?

I might add that the directors of the GPA as listed above are three of the greatest ever to play our games and have given an awful lot to the sport.  They are the face of the GPA portrayed to us mere mortals.  They are the Directors of the company.    Not one of the directors of the Gaelic Players Mmanagement Company Limited sat at any of the negotiations that have taken place over the last three months.  Strange?  A company negotiating millions and they do not have one director at the meetings?  The sole representatives of the GPA at the three months of meetings were, Chairman, Donal Og Cusack; Chief Executive Dessie Farrell and Fintan Drury.  Fintan holds medals for being a non-executive director of no less than Anglo Irish Bank , was a  former chairman of RTE and Director of PLATINUM ONE Ltd, the latter being the company under which he was present and making representations at said meetings.

Here is a link to Fintan Drury's site which you can browse to see if it is steeped in the history of the GAA in this the year of our 125th Anniversary !  http://www.platinumonegroup.com/   Doubt if you will find any clips of one of DJ's greatest scores on that one !  But there is another question that can be asked and it is this:

What authority had Mr Cooney got to sit down on our behalf with Platinum One who represent the following associations among others?

Manchester United FC
FC Barcelona (2007 & 2008 Official Pre-Season Partner)
Real Madrid C.F. (2009 Official Pre-Season Partner)
Sevilla FC 
St Patricks Athletic FC
Reggina Calcio
Wisla Krakow
Club Deportivo Toluca
UEFA
FIFA
Football Association of Ireland
Irish Rugby Union Players Association (IRUPA)
Gaelic Players Association (GPA) 

My view is that not alone had he no authority whatsoever and it has nothing to do with paranoia, it has to do with the fact that if left unchallenged the President of the GAA thinks he can sit down with who he likes and sell us down the Swanee without even consulting us.

[Hardy]

I'll ask again, for emphasis - how will the GPA represent the thousands of club players when their specific charter is to further the lot of inter-county players, which in a zero-sum situation, with finite resources, can only be at the expense of those club players?

It works perfectly fine in almost every other sport in the world.

You think so?  What most of these other sports have in common is that they are professional. Do you think the professionalisation of rugby, for instance, has been good for club rugby and its players? Have you noticed that the lower tiers of soccer players are still togging out from the boots of cars around the country?

It's a simple equation. There's a finite amount of available resources. If one grouping is now to be allocated an increased share of these resources, then clearly there's less available for everyone else. That's in the simplest case. In fact, experience shows that it's worse than that and in all sports with an elite level, the share of resources going to the elite level grows and grows continually at the expense of the lower levels. It won't be any different in the GAA and the thin end of the wedge has now been firmly inserted in the artificial crack between elite and "ordinary" members that has been created by the GPA.

I don't see how the fact that club footballers and other volunteer sections of our association don't have an individual voice as reason to deprive IC footballers of one?

We're talking about more than a "voice" here. €1.3 million, for starters, this year. But we're talking about much more than that. We now have, for the first time in the history of the association, a tiered system of membership. And we seem to have trampled over our democratic procedures in achieving it. For one thing, by what authority is Christy Cooney going to sign a seven-figure cheque for a group with no official standing other than that conferred on it yesterday without reference to the rest of the membership? I don't think he has any mandate to spend our money that way.

Great posts Bud.

Signed: Hardy
Status: Usual suspect.
Category: Headcase.