government grants to GAA players -- not getting into prefessionalism etc

[orangeman]

 

Mark Conway is one of the most vocal anti-grants campaigners
GAA Congress delegates have voted to accept the 3.5m euro package proposed by the government to recognise the contribution of inter-county players.

The scheme was passed on Saturday morning despite strong opposition from speakers such as Tyrone's Mark Conway and Donal McAnallen.

An attempt by the Derry County Board to have their motion moved up the Clár was defeated following a vote.

The GAA has ruled that the scheme does not breach the sport's amateur status.

Con Hogan spoke on behalf of Central Council on the motion.

"This scheme does not in any way contravene European Law," Hogan stated.

However, Derry's Seamus McCloy was concerned that what had previously been called 'a grant, an award, a small contribution' was now being proposed as 'eligible expenses'.

McCloy wondered if the implementation of the scheme would lead to larger financial contributions to players down the line.

"Can anyone else finance a scheme such as a sponsor, a county board and a business?," McCloy questioned.

  This can only further enhance the improving relationships between county boards and players.

Dessie Farrell


"Should we pay for a babysitter and lie to others and pretend it wasn't a payment?"

"It's cheap, it's grubby and it's wrong and it is blatantly obvious.

"I've never heard of expenses being calculated at 3.5million in advance." McCloy added: "The proposed payments as stated in the motion will not enhance team performances."

"Injustice will be increased and elitism will be established. Accepting these payments will accept the introduction of sham amateurism.

"There will be no going back."

Meanwhile, players representative and GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell stressed that his organisation were committed to maintaining the amateur status of the GAA.

"The GPA have a commitment to amateur status - this is something we have said from the very outset and this has proven to be true," Farrell said.

"This can only further enhance the improving relationships between county boards and players.

"There is no onus on the GAA to fund this scheme."

Meanwhile, GAA Ard Stiurthoir and former Player Welfare Officer Pauric Duffy, maintained that the introduction of the government grants would not facilitate a road to professionalism.

"This is a recognition of the effort the players put in to protect our indigenous games," Duffy said.

"We as an association are determined to develop and maintain our amateur status.

"It is time to move on - this issue has been on the agenda for the last six years. We need to get on and face the real serious challenges."




A complete sham if you ask me !

[Uladh]

As with all congress decisions, its time to accept the majority decision and move on. The anti grant beliefs were well intentiaoned initially and asked some important questions of the GAA. Rule 11 has been protected. The GPA have been nudged into signing up to maintaining the integrity of rule 11 going forward and further government funding for our association has been secured.

The most imprtant issues i see ahead of us now are further improvement to facilities, particularly provision for winter and schools use, broadening the appeal of the GAA to the protestant and international communities and most importantly the upgrade of the importance of club football in the calendar.

[Rossfan]

Does this mean that Orangeman and his fellow travellers will now stop their spoilt child whinging and moaning and get on with their lives?

[orangeman]

Does this mean that Orangeman and his fellow travellers will now stop their spoilt child whinging and moaning and get on with their lives?

Does this mean that you and your friends will be getting a few more quid than you have been heretofor ? 

[Rossfan]

I'm not a County footballer - things arent that bad here- and I only accept € €€€ , none of them oul' £ thingys.

[INDIANA]

just to say where i'm coming from - i reside not a million miles away from a particular university in dublin where i know for 100% fact that the senior  inter county players attending there get from various sources- scholarships, free accomodation, sponsored cars, free gear,mileage, meal vouchers, and now more expenses. Just in reference to Hound and sponsored cars i personally know 20 senior inter county footballers from one particular county with sponsored cars so your estimate a bit like Bertie's tax bill is a tad low i'd say.
The association is only going one way i feel. That's towards professionalism. Anyone who can't see that is either galactically stupid or simply refuses to read between the lines. Pay only goes one way -up - anyone who earns a living wage knows that. In my view if the demands are too much -cut back in standard then . The preceived 5% drop in standard is worth not losing what we have now- which is a game which is largely untainted by the greed of professional sports. Once it's gone you can't get it back. And it's on its way.
A sad day all round.

[Uladh]

I would say DCU represents the top of the tree in terms of perks for players - way ahead of any county team. No county could hope to provide what DCU do, outside of maybe Dublin and Cork and even those two would have to massively overhaul their revenue sourcing. asking some people who should know, there is a grand total of one sponsored car in armagh - amongst 60/70 IC players.

your post implies that scholarships, free accomodation, sponsored cars, free gear, mileage and meal vouchers should not be forthcoming to players at that uni? if they are in a position to offer that to players then i don't see the problem. its the level of support i think all county players deserve but realistically no other universitys and certainly not counties are in a position to provide it.

[INDIANA]

they don't get it all from university uladh- in fact quite a bit of it comes from elsewhere. the top county players in the big counties all get sponsored cars from sponsors etc for example. Depressing really- i know they have to train quite a lot - but like i said the 5% increase in standard isn't worth professionalism. It's like sticking a finger in the dyke- and a lot of the younger ones are more militant than the current GPA heads. In ten years time inter county players will never play for their clubs. It reminds me a lof of Aussie Rules the way it is going.

[orangeman]

just to say where i'm coming from - i reside not a million miles away from a particular university in dublin where i know for 100% fact that the senior  inter county players attending there get from various sources- scholarships, free accomodation, sponsored cars, free gear,mileage, meal vouchers, and now more expenses. Just in reference to Hound and sponsored cars i personally know 20 senior inter county footballers from one particular county with sponsored cars so your estimate a bit like Bertie's tax bill is a tad low i'd say.
The association is only going one way i feel. That's towards professionalism. Anyone who can't see that is either galactically stupid or simply refuses to read between the lines. Pay only goes one way -up - anyone who earns a living wage knows that. In my view if the demands are too much -cut back in standard then . The preceived 5% drop in standard is worth not losing what we have now- which is a game which is largely untainted by the greed of professional sports. Once it's gone you can't get it back. And it's on its way.
A sad day all round.

Well said Indiana - couldn't agree with you more ! I suppose Rossfan will call you a whinger for holding that view !

[Uladh]

they don't get it all from university uladh- in fact quite a bit of it comes from elsewhere. the top county players in the big counties all get sponsored cars from sponsors etc for example. Depressing really- i know they have to train quite a lot - but like i said the 5% increase in standard isn't worth professionalism.

I don't understand - where are the getting it from? I also don't understand what could possibly be depressing that a top IC players gets a sponsored car?

It's like sticking a finger in the dyke- and a lot of the younger ones are more militant than the current GPA heads. In ten years time inter county players will never play for their clubs. It reminds me a lof of Aussie Rules the way it is going.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but i certainly don't agree with it. our congress listened to this and contrary arguments this morning and a majority decided that your argument does not stand up

[INDIANA]

A lot of them get cars from sponsors- uladh it's the done thing down here. I wasn't saying the fact they get cars is depressing just in general. i often trained twice a day as a club player like many others on this website. It's a disappointing trait from the Celtic Tiger where everyone wants something for everything now. I often believe the demands are simply too much for precious little increase in standard. I may be a minority but its not worth the trade off despite what the GPA think. Cut back the training if necessary but the government won't pay this forever.

[Hardy]

Well it's "expenses" now, not grants, so no problem. Who can object to expenses? Unless, of course, it's expenses that are available to one category of GAA member only, expenses that vary depending on how successful your team is and expenses that are determined in advance. But I still have a few questions.

Why was it suddenly converted from grants to expenses? Weren't we assured that the grants were above board and not an infringement of Rule 11 and not pay-for-play? Why, then, the need to re-constitute the payments as expenses only when Mark Conway questioned it? And what became of the December agreement? And the assurances that went with it? Only four months ago we were being invited to sign up to that version and assured that it was the well-thought-out, loophole-free, no-threat-to-amateurism product of the best minds the GAA could assemble. Forgive me if I'm a bit sceptical when the same people now assure me that this time it's really OK.

Maybe I'm wrong and the re-jigging of the pay as expenses has been a master stroke that has dodged the juggernaut of professionalism and side-tracked it into a cul-de-sac. But I'm not reassured that this regime of predetermined, multi-tiered expenses will survive its first encounter with the taxman of either administration, never mind a referral to the European court. Won't happen? Probably not for a few hundred Euro. But, as Indiana said, wages – sorry, expenses - only ever go up and some day, some player will object to having his expenses income limited by being forced to play for Leitrim when Dublin offers so much more. I can't see how the European Court  could consider the Leitrim footballer's restricted earnings to be substantially different to the case of the Belgian judo player.

And forgive me for being nauseated at the sanctimonious bilge from Farrell about his reverence for the amateur ethos of the GAA, when he has already (inadvertently) signalled that this is only step one on the road to professionalism. Worse still, this shambolic, craven GAA administration is to take this cuckoo and his organisation officially into the nest and put them in charge of player welfare, knowing that they officially exclude 95% of all players from membership. Will we get to vote on that?

[johnpower]

It is more likely that some club official ,player or county board will take a case to get a suspension lifted or a match re played .That is a much bigger threat to the GAA

[Farrandeelin]

just to say where i'm coming from - i reside not a million miles away from a particular university in dublin where i know for 100% fact that the senior  inter county players attending there get from various sources- scholarships, free accomodation, sponsored cars, free gear,mileage, meal vouchers, and now more expenses. Just in reference to Hound and sponsored cars i personally know 20 senior inter county footballers from one particular county with sponsored cars so your estimate a bit like Bertie's tax bill is a tad low i'd say.
The association is only going one way i feel. That's towards professionalism. Anyone who can't see that is either galactically stupid or simply refuses to read between the lines. Pay only goes one way -up - anyone who earns a living wage knows that. In my view if the demands are too much -cut back in standard then . The preceived 5% drop in standard is worth not losing what we have now- which is a game which is largely untainted by the greed of professional sports. Once it's gone you can't get it back. And it's on its way.
A sad day all round.

Well put, and did I hear somewhere that there would be more negotiations in 3 years time to 'increase' the grants? I put the word increase in inverted commas because they (GPA) will hardly say we're alright we want a decrease at this stage.

[Rossfan]

The GAA's ruling body - congress - democratically voted to accept this scheme.
Take ye're batin and move on for **** sake .
Enough of the"everyone's out of step except us in the purity corner"