Ewan McKenna

[Tubberman]

I don't read this as a scandal so much as the legal transfer of a debt (and its repayment) from one body to another.

GAA central council were right to take on the debt. Should that then mean it's Christmas Day for Mayo? I'm not sure to be honest. They're still assuming a risk. And need to be wary of precedents.

And this is me commenting as someone who truly despises the staffing bloat / civil service mentality that central and provincial councils have created over the past 20 years.

The debt that Mayo owed was potentially written down by 50% if this story is accurate.
But Mayo are still repaying the full amount to Croke Park.
Why should that be the case? Why should Croke Park overcharge Mayo by several million euro?

[thewobbler]

I don't read this as a scandal so much as the legal transfer of a debt (and its repayment) from one body to another.

GAA central council were right to take on the debt. Should that then mean it's Christmas Day for Mayo? I'm not sure to be honest. They're still assuming a risk. And need to be wary of precedents.

And this is me commenting as someone who truly despises the staffing bloat / civil service mentality that central and provincial councils have created over the past 20 years.

The debt that Mayo owed was potentially written down by 50% if this story is accurate.
But Mayo are still repaying the full amount to Croke Park.
Why should that be the case? Why should Croke Park overcharge Mayo by several million euro?

Because someone else would have bought the debt had central council not done so, and nothing would have changed.

It's not overcharging per se.

I wouldn't describe it as particularly moral, and it certainly doesn't fit an "association" model. But as mentioned above, Central Council assumed the risk for the debt. So it's not as simple as "here, Jarlath, go any pay that off for us and we will chat about it later".

[twohands!!!]

I don't read this as a scandal so much as the legal transfer of a debt (and its repayment) from one body to another.

GAA central council were right to take on the debt. Should that then mean it's Christmas Day for Mayo? I'm not sure to be honest. They're still assuming a risk. And need to be wary of precedents.

And this is me commenting as someone who truly despises the staffing bloat / civil service mentality that central and provincial councils have created over the past 20 years.

My understanding of what he has said is that Mayo GAA owed debts to both Ulster Bank and Central Council.

Ulster Bank sold their loan of €5 million the GAA at a discount.

The source said there was an excess of 50% of a write-down.

For illustrations sake I'll say it was a 60% write down.

This means that the GAA paid Ulster Bank €2 million and took over ownership of the loan.

Mayo GAA now pay interest and repayments on the €5 million loan to the GAA instead of to Ulster Bank or to an actual vulture fund.

The notion that Mayo GAA should be the entity to "profit" from this illustrative €3 million write-off as opposed to the other 31 counties plus overseas is just nuts. Rewarding bad financial decisions by a county board by reducing their debt would be a terribe precedent to set.

I'd be gobsmacked if anything at all comes of this.

It really looks like Tim O'Leary is using Ewan to do some "tilting at windmills"

The reality described here is nowhere near "the GAA ripping off its own volunteers to tune of millions"

If you wanted to sensationalise this into tabloid speak but in the other direction with a pro-GAA spin you could say something like "GAA Central Council swoops to the rescue to keep Mayo GAA debt out of the hands of actual vulure funds; saving McHale Park from being knocked to build apartments"

[thewobbler]

**

By the way. Down County Board have been repaying an exceptional debt for the past 15 years, due to the mother of all f**k ups in a purchase transaction.

I've no doubt at all Central Council could have cleared this in one swoop if that way inclined.

But you know what happens after that? More county boards take on more poorly planned, thought out and budgeted projects, safe in the knowledge that their dad will bail them out. That's the fastest way imaginable to the poor house for the GAA.

[Saffron_sam20]

I don't read this as a scandal so much as the legal transfer of a debt (and its repayment) from one body to another.

GAA central council were right to take on the debt. Should that then mean it's Christmas Day for Mayo? I'm not sure to be honest. They're still assuming a risk. And need to be wary of precedents.

And this is me commenting as someone who truly despises the staffing bloat / civil service mentality that central and provincial councils have created over the past 20 years.

Is the issue not that mayo are still paying off the same debt even though the GAA bought it for 2.5m less (not sure of figures) so mayo people being fleeced

[twohands!!!]

**

By the way. Down County Board have been repaying an exceptional debt for the past 15 years, due to the mother of all f**k ups in a purchase transaction.

I've no doubt at all Central Council could have cleared this in one swoop if that way inclined.

But you know what happens after that? More county boards take on more poorly planned, thought out and budgeted projects, safe in the knowledge that their dad will bail them out. That's the fastest way imaginable to the poor house for the GAA.

Yup there's definitely other counties in similar situations - Cork are with PuC debt.

Basically Croke Park/Central Council are acting as a safety blanket for when county boards screw things up financially. They are almost acting as a responsible father - basically they are saying to county boards, we'll step in if you screw up, but you'll be made to pay the loan back to me instead of the financial equivalent of a street punk who will do the financial equivalent of breaking your legs. The fact that any of the "profit" Central Council earns on these deals goes into the pot that is distributed accross all the various GAA units (including some percentage of these profits going to Mayo,Down and Cork and the other counties as opposed to these units getting write-offs at the expense of the counties who didn't screw up financially) Honestly I think this is by far the fairest/most morally correct way to deal with these sort of write-offs.

[twohands!!!]

Is the issue not that mayo are still paying off the same debt even though the GAA bought it for 2.5m less (not sure of figures) so mayo people being fleeced

It's the least worst situation. Mayo people are not being fleeced by any means - they are simply paying the debt the county board took on to the friendliest possible creditor who will actually end up returning some of the money back to Mayo GAA according to the standard procedures for distributing funds in the GAA.

Once the GAA bought the debt (keeping it out of the hands of vulture funds [As an aside if a vulture fund did end up owning the debt it could have been an absolute nightmare in terms of them going after all and any Mayo GAA assets]) the GAA could have either told Mayo "We bought the debt for €2million, you don't need to pay us back the other €3 million" or said to Mayo GAA "You screwed up. We stepped in and bought this debt from Ulster Bank to keep it out of the hands of vulture funds. You still need to pay us back what you said you would when you took out this loan". This would basically have rewarded Mayo GAA with €3 million for screwing up. Instead that €3 million was retained by the GAA/Central Council and went into the pot of money distributed across the entire organisation.

[bennydorano]

I don't read this as a scandal so much as the legal transfer of a debt (and its repayment) from one body to another.

GAA central council were right to take on the debt. Should that then mean it's Christmas Day for Mayo? I'm not sure to be honest. They're still assuming a risk. And need to be wary of precedents.

And this is me commenting as someone who truly despises the staffing bloat / civil service mentality that central and provincial councils have created over the past 20 years.

Is the issue not that mayo are still paying off the same debt even though the GAA bought it for 2.5m less (not sure of figures) so mayo people being fleeced

I assume the €2.5m has been put into central funds for other GAA related purposes? The GAA used their financial clout to take on the debt at a reduced rate, that surely benefited the organisation as a whole too. Mayo maybe getting a bit of a humping alrite and the GAA's aren't we a great wee amateur organisation image gets another layer of veneer removed.

[screenexile]

https://ewanmackenna.wordpress.com/2025/04/25/gaas-vulture-fund-imitation-costs-volunteers-millions-as-they-pay-for-non-existent-debt/

Clubs will be absolutely f**king raging if this is verified!!

PS. Ewan MacKenna is a complete bellend

Is hard to follow all that other than GAA hierarchy has been corrupt/dishonest?
Why is McKenna wrong to expose this?

He's not wrong pointing this out I just don't like him as an overall rule.

I get what people are saying and yeah it was probably the right thing for Central Council to take it over but surely something like this should be more transparent?

If you're a club paying a levy each month/year or a business contributing to Mayo helping to service this debt you'd hardly be too happy about it! Surely something of the write off should have been passed on or at least an open discussion around it.

Should interest repayments have come down rather than paying it on the full €5m?

[gallsman]

The notion that Mayo GAA should be the entity to "profit" from this illustrative €3 million write-off as opposed to the other 31 counties plus overseas is just nuts. Rewarding bad financial decisions by a county board by reducing their debt would be a terribe precedent to set.

This is the piece that Ewan, raving gobshite that he is, has either apparently missed or deliberately ignored.

I'll reserve full judgment until more comes to light but people already frothing at the mouth about the GAA "ripping off Mayo" are displaying a sense of entitlement that beggars belief. Whatever about the "trading in financial instruments" allegation, the centralisation of the debt solely to Central Council protects Mayo GAA from outside influence. They'll not be coming looking to force them to sell McHale Park the first time they fail to make payments, that's for sure.

[gallsman]

I don't read this as a scandal so much as the legal transfer of a debt (and its repayment) from one body to another.

GAA central council were right to take on the debt. Should that then mean it's Christmas Day for Mayo? I'm not sure to be honest. They're still assuming a risk. And need to be wary of precedents.

And this is me commenting as someone who truly despises the staffing bloat / civil service mentality that central and provincial councils have created over the past 20 years.

Is the issue not that mayo are still paying off the same debt even though the GAA bought it for 2.5m less (not sure of figures) so mayo people being fleeced

Being fleeced? Who paid UB the 2.5m to buy the debt in the first place? Just volunteers from Mayo, yeah? 

[quit yo jibbajabba]

First of three exclusives....*pulls up seat*

Seemed well dodgy at the start but Two hands does make some good points tbh

[Rossfan]

Galway and Ros got bailed out too.
Maybe if HQ had made expertise available at the start  to Co Boards undertaking big projects a lot of poor decisions could have been avoided.

[smelmoth]

Every Mayo Gael should be very glad that the GAA stepped in.

Every Gael in the rest of Ireland should be glad that this happened.

There is a lot of stuff Ewan just doesn't understand. Almost everything it seems. He has a good grasp of how to inject hyperbole into the mundane. But that's not a "talent" that sensible people appreciate.

It is a story that Mayo got themselves into such peril. But that's the only real story.

[weareros]

Galway and Ros got bailed out too.
Maybe if HQ had made expertise available at the start  to Co Boards undertaking big projects a lot of poor decisions could have been avoided.

In our case a local business man gave money. I don't think HQ bailed us out with any help on debt?