There’s no other way of saying it: we lost at Congress last Saturday. To put it any differently is to just fool ourselves. And we were never in that business.Congress was hugely disappointing for us and for the view of the GAA that we had. Some of the main thoughts/reactions to it are:

• We lost but don’t know by how much. One paper said we had about three dozen supporters … another said maybe 40% of the vote went for us. On Friday night we had asked for the vote to be counted and were told it would be. On Saturday that agreement was reneged on. That’s sad. But who knows, it could work out like the GPO in 1916 … as the years go on and the consequences become apparent, more-and-more people will say: “I was there and I did my bit”!!!

• For the record the Counties that stood against the grants/expenses/whatever were: Antrim; Armagh; Derry; Donegal; Down; Fermanagh; Limerick; Longford; Louth; and Tyrone.

• If we had one vote for every person who met us over the two days and said “I have grave reservations about this, but …” well, the result would have been very different!

• Just before the vote was taken Paraic Duffy spoke at some length in favour of the motion. That’s not on and it shouldn’t have happened. It was an appalling call in terms of where executive, paid staff sit within the governance of an organisation that’s based on members and their elected representatives. At that moment Paraic ceased to be Ard-Stiúrthóir for any GAA member who was against the motion. And that’s intolerable.

• Derry’s Seamus Mc Cloy shone as a County Chairman who had the courage to stand up and state his and his County’s case. Bellaghy and Derry were never found wanting before. Neither were they at Congress! From all of us Seamus: Thank You!
• After the vote we mistakenly believed Donegal abstained on the vote. That was our inexcusable mistake. We can only apologise for it. But it shouldn’t have happened and we did Donegal a disservice. It’s the one thing in all of this we’re not proud of.

DRA Business

Well the DRA hearing finally happened, three months and three weeks after we went there.

Again, let’s not fool ourselves: we lost. The DRA didn’t accept our analysis. The DRA Tribunal’s report on our hearing is available in full on www.sportsdra.ie (look under Decisions) but among the nuggets in the findings are the following:

(Paragaraph 1): “Their status as members has never been in question; the contribution of their witnesses alone to the Association over many years, both as players and administrators, is most impressive; and, quite properly, their standing to bring these arbitration proceedings has not been challenged. As such, suggestions that have been made publicly (although not by those involved in this arbitration) to the effect that the Claimants are in some way ‘external’ to the Association, are both incorrect and unfair”.

A few leading GAA people and one or two journalists should read this.

Paragraph 44: “It would seem sensible, both in the context of Rule 11 and any enhanced expenses scheme such as that under consideration here, to fix not only rates of expenses but types of expenses allowable, because while certain heads of expenditure might happily fall within any man’s view of ‘expenses’ others might extend into what might justifiably be ‘reward’. “

Yes, we though that too. In fact it’s at the core of this whole mess. But confusion and mess it remains. Even after Saturday’s vote nobody has a clue as to what’s eligible and what isn’t. But the blank cheque has now been signed.

Paragraph 54: “Central Council argue that if the enhanced meal or mileage rate exceeded what was properly treated as an expense, the Revenue Commissioners would be entitled to tax it and no sums were payable that fell into that bracket: accordingly there is a safeguard against breaches of Rule 11.”

This means there’s no €1.27-a-mile rate for players in the six counties where anything above €0.60-a-mile is taxable. This part of the scheme delivers us a partitionist GAA. Now that is unacceptable … but it’s a reality.

Paragraph 54: “That does not, in our opinion, answer the question why a (well-off) club should remain prohibited from paying its members Civil Service mileage rates (since, by Central Council’s definition, those rates constitute expenses and not reward), while inter-county players would be free to collect them”.

Yes, we wondered about that too. One rule for one … another rule for another! And certain conflict down the line.

Paragraph 61: “The Schemes may be a very good idea, and they may be a very bad one”.

Well, we’ll let you make your choice on that one!

Paragraph 63: “Although unsuccessful in the result, it is clear from the two sets of arbitration proceedings that the Claimants cannot be said to have failed in their endeavours”.

It was gratifying to hear this. But we’re not foolish nor naïve. We didn’t get the result at the DRA we wanted. The outcome is the GAA adopting a scheme that we believe, in the DRA’s own words, will be “a very bad one.” That means we failed.

We can’t close on the DRA without putting on record our appreciation of how Drumquin and Tyrone’s Paddy Fahy led the line for us at the hearing. A tour-de-force from someone who was never afraid to face the odds for things that were right.

So That’s It

We came together to try to stop this move towards pay-for-play in the GAA. Hopefully it’s not self-praise to say we made a decent effort at it. Everybody knows that those promoting the grants had to retreat hastily and embarrassingly from their 8 December position. We didn’t have to retreat from ours.

We tried hard and got great support from you all. But it wasn’t to be.

Anyway, life goes on. We hope it will be good for you and yours. But “Of One Belief” won’t be part of it. We now leave the stage!

Thank you all for your help and support. It was great being associated with you.

Go gcuire Dia rath agus bláth oraibh uilig.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Now everybody knows why those promoting player grants/awards/whatever ran scared of the DRA - they knew that what they had attempted to foist on the GAA back on 8 December hadn’t a legal, let alone an ethical leg to stand on. The panicky mantra this time around about compliance with EU law shows just how close to disaster the GAA had been brought last November/December. Serious questions have to be asked about the levels of competence shown right the way through here. And those questions remain about the latest offering to an increasingly sceptical GAA membership.If there was any doubt that “Of One Belief” and those of like mind got it exactly right late last year and Central Council got it frighteningly wrong, then the frankly embarrassing expenses denouement of 17/18 March spells it out loud and clear. Last December we were told we were scare-mongering … that we were dinosaurs/backwoodsmen/The Taliban … that all the bases had been covered … that the amateur status was “copper-fastened” by the deal. Now the “copper-fastening” scheme is in the bin (a bin we’re confident is firmly copper-fastened!!!) and we’re presented with a whole new scheme and a whole new language. The last batch of very nervous assurances turned out to be as worthless as the grants they applied to.

In one of Irish sport’s great ongoing turnarounds, the cash-for-elite-GAA-players terminology has been changed yet again. We’ve so far waded our way from “grants” through “awards” to “eligible expenses”   (can the term “dig-out” now be all that far away?) But the outcome remains tellingly the same: inter-County GAA players will be given sizeable amounts of cash simply because they’re inter-County GAA players. That’s the one sad, unchanging fact in all of this mess.

As the morass deepens we’ve been told by our President (”Off The Ball”, Newstalk, 18 March) that inter-County players, having had their GAA mileage rates already paid by their County Boards (at 50 cents a mile), can apply to have their rates topped up to Civil Service levels (at €1.27 a mile). It’s simply unbelievable.

In one of the GAA’s most ironic twists ever, we now have the GPA -which originally rightly railed at the fact that some elite GAA officials got better mileage rates than elite GAA players - endorsing exactly the same sort of grubby discrimination they said they came forward to oppose. Principle … where are you! But then maybe part of the GPA’s well-versed “plight-of-the-inter-County-player” is being cursed with cars that are, just as a fact of life, much more expensive to run than those driven by anybody else involved in the GAA. Maybe, to steal a phrase from another person; another time; and another place, the rest of us want to try it sometime!

You’ve Shown Us the Money … Now Show Us the Shopping List!

The new “Eligible Expenses” scheme is very long on the “How” (ie we get chapter and verse on the mechanics of the thing) but totally and worryingly short on the “What” (ie just what is going to be included in these mysterious “Eligible Expenses”). In plain GAA language it’s not good enough. GAA people at Congress in a fortnight’s time are being asked to sign a blank cheque. We were last asked to do this on 8 December last year: we all now know the narrow escape the GAA had then. There’s an old Irish saying that goes: “Fool me once, shame on you … Fool me twice, shame on me!” It seems fairly relevant here!

Let’s look at the new “scheme”. At first glance alone here are some of the problems with it:

• Just what are “Eligible Expenses”? It’s time to show us the beef! Give us a list of what’s in and make it clear what’s out. If that fairly simple exercise can’t be done … well, why can’t it be done?
• On whose authority is the GPA to be unilaterally introduced to important decision-making roles within the GAA?
• Why is the GPA the only party to all this not defined in the document?
• What are the legal liabilities for the GAA in involving a non-constituted body like the GPA in its corporate governance?
• Will team mentors/back-room people be eligible for these “enhanced expenses”? If not, why not?
• Ditto re people involved in inter-County Under 21 and Minor teams
• Ditto re referees, in many ways among the most important GAA people of all
• And what about the driver who brings County Players to training etc in his/her car: does the inter-County player then revert back to being a 50-cents-a-mile as opposed to a €1.27-a-mile burden?
• Who’s going to handle the administrative nightmare this will introduce at County level?
• What kind of expenses regime is it that’s performance-based? Expenses are expenses are expenses: if they’re tied in to some sort of performance-related arrangement they’re not bona fide expenses. Are we seeing a major GAA Trojan Horse here?
• Any encouragement of pooled player travel (and another stated government policy) now goes out the window
• Most seriously of all, after all the honeyed words about player burnout we’re now about to lever even more training/performance demands onto inter-County players: that’s simply not what we should be doing

There is a simple answer to all this. If the government has €3.5m to spare for the GAA, then split it between the various County Boards to help them fund their increasingly complex and expensive GAA work.

Equally, another thought. What about €25,000 for every County Board and €1,000 for every GAA Club in Ireland … but tied to them doing programmed work to address one of our huge community problems, binge drinking? Even give it on condition that they provide match funding/resources. Or do we just talk about those things … in the firm understanding that we won’t ever do anything about them?

DRA Business

Our first case at the DRA effectively ended in a no-score draw. But watch this space! The holes in the 17 March agreement (though maybe it too will turn out not to have been an agreement at all either) are already emerging. And options are being considered.

Whatever happens next we’d want to put on record that we have been treated with total decency and respect by the DRA. They’re honourable people doing an honourable job for the GAA. Sin é.

“Of One Belief”: Not a Group!

Several people have taken to calling us a group and querying our right to make our case and use options like the DRA. We’re not a formal group and always made that very, very clear. We’re much more than that. We’re GAA members and volunteers who have taken exception to how GAA volunteers and members have been persistently disenfranchised in all this. We believe in the GAA and have been committed to it. We like to think we’ve helped make it what it is. But we don’t want to see it destroyed for the next generations on the basis of the greed and short-sightedness of some members of this generation. But, having said that, we’re not about squabbling and quarrelling with fellow-gaels. The GAA deserves much better than that. But it also deserves better than some current/recent proposals!

“Of One Belief” is a branding or banner that we use. It’s nothing more and nothing less. And as of today there’s 1,031 of you signed up to it. Not a bad state of affairs!

To Close: The Best Line Yet!

From one of our classy and very honourable (but un-named) national GAA journalists:

“Of One Belief has certainly achieved a re-routing of the parade!”

Brilliant!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It looks like the reconvened DRA hearing may take place on Friday 14 March. We’re going back because of two basic things. First, we don’t think the GAA centrally has lived up to the commitments it gave at the last hearing back in January. That’s something we take no pleasure in. And second, we believe that Central Council’s motion asking Congress to say it’s “satisfied” the grants/awards don’t break Rule 11 has no standing at all in GAA Rule. Congress makes rules. It’s not there to say it’s “satisfied” specific things don’t break specific Rules.Dessie Farrell (presumably on behalf of the GPA) has asked to appear/be represented at the hearing. This interest in openness and participation is a bit rich after months of secret, behind-closed-doors negotiations on the grants. And what was that a while back about small rumps of malcontents … ? No matter. This isn’t about scoring points. Our view is simple. The GPA is not part of the GAA. The DRA has no jurisdiction over the GPA. This is a case between two parts of the GAA, using the proper GAA systems and procedures. It’s got nothing to do with third parties. So our view is we’ll be keeping it properly “in house.” Nothing personal Dessie … just business.

Presidential Unanimity

Over the past week all three 2008 GAA Presidential candidates have expressed, at a minimum, very grave reservations about the proposed grants deal. Tipperary’s Sean Fogarty struck the clearest of chords with many “Of-One-Believers” when he said: “At the outset we should never have entered discussions on it.” Liam O’Neill meanwhile commented: “If we renege on our amateur status history will not judge us kindly.” And finally Christy Cooney is clear that: “If it affects Rule 11 it shouldn’t happen and it’s up to Management and Central Council to convince Clubs and Counties that it doesn’t.”

Defenders of paying our inter-County players cash to play gaelic games are becoming an endangered species. But when the best that one national journalist who supports the scheme can come up with is an intimidatory “Sign up to grants - or else”, it’s hard to be persuaded by the logical and ethical brilliance of that particular argument!

Dublin Deliberation Deferred

In the light of the forthcoming DRA hearing and Central Council’s meeting of 17 March, St Joseph’s/O’Connell’s Boys GAC agreed to defer until April its motion due for debate at last night’s Dublin County Board meeting. The Club’s motion was fairly straightforward: it mandated Dublin to vote against the “November 2007 Agreement” (or any modification of it that continues to break Rule 11) at Congress. A number of other Dublin Clubs had already rowed in behind St Joseph’s/O’Connell’s Boys on this issue.

But Because We Pay Managers …

There’s a weird circular argument going round that because there’s a raft of “illegal” paid managers at work across the GAA, then it should be OK to also illegally pay elite players. And that those who oppose the grants are thereby hypocrites. Our position is very clear on this: we oppose paid managers. We think the principle of outside, paid managers at Club or County level attacks the very ethos of the GAA. They’re a cancer … and just because part of the body has a cancer is no reason to inject botulism into another part of it.

If the grants debate is won and the idea of pay-for-elite-play is binned, then we need to address the pay-to-manage syndrome with the same vigour. Let’s do it. Let’s bring in rules about who’s eligible to coach/manage teams, rules that run parallel with our existing rules which determine who’s eligible to play for those same teams. It’s not beyond the bounds of GAA possibility to do it. And it’s something we can address jointly, from Central Council down to the grass-roots.

That’s of course, if we’re serious about it! And if that hypocrisy doesn’t run farther than some might think!

Every Club and County in the Land and Beyond

Because those who should be doing it aren’t doing it, we’ve been trying to facilitate a discussion on the grants issue across the GAA. Over the past weekend the text below has been emailed to GAA Clubs; Counties; and Provinces, not just in Ireland but round the world. Nearly 2,400 GAA units have now received the following:

“Speak Now … Or Forever Hold Your Peace!“

What This Is About

At this year’s Congress the GAA will take one of its most fundamental decisions ever - whether inter-County GAA players should be given cash for playing our games. For whatever reason this issue isn’t being discussed across the GAA as it should be. But many, many GAA people are hugely concerned about it. We would like you to debate it in your Club or County. Your County will be voting on it at Congress. Make sure the votes cast on your behalf reflect what YOU think!

We’re All Adults Around Here

We have a particular view on the cash payments. We’re totally against them. But we don’t expect people to unquestioningly follow our line. We want you to discuss this issue and to reach a conclusion you’re content with. We hope you’ll share our view. This circular sets out why we oppose paying some GAA players to play gaelic games. It’s going to every GAA Club and County. Circulate it to your colleagues/members. Read over it and make up your minds. What you’ll read here isn’t being discussed across the GAA as it should be. But the GAA is us as much as anyone else. Let’s make our view count!

If Grants Are Paid To Inter-County GAA Players, Then …

• Our Rule 11 (”a player … shall not accept payment in cash or in kind in conjunction with the playing of Gaelic games”) is blown asunder

• Under EU law, the players’ GAA activity will become an economic activity and be subject to EU commercial law: our fundamental GAA principles and rules about eligibility; transfers; and so on will go out the window. Players will be able to move as they/sponsors/whoever sees fit. And they’ll hold “restraint of trade” powers over GAA Committees at Club and County level. It wouldn’t happen? Look at the Bosman; Deliege; Meca-Medina; and Kolpac cases at the European Court of Justice.

• Our amateur status will be gone and it won’t be coming back. Those behind the grants deal say it “copper-fastens” our amateur status. European commercial case law says something totally different. Which of them do you think will turn out to be right?

• For the first time in GAA history we will have two classes of GAA players/members … those who pay for the games and those who are paid to play them.

• We’ll have established the principle that inter-County players get money because of who they are. That process won’t stop.

• There will be no moral nor legal justification for not paying the teams’ backroom people … then the team liaison people … then our County Committee people … then …

• For the first time in GAA history single decisions by referees; umpires; linesmen; and fixture-makers will decide into whose pockets tens of thousands of euros will go

• Illicit “sponsors” will be able to offer teams cash prizes for winning things: the EU “economic activity” reality will mean we can’t stop it

• Once the government pulls its funding (as it inevitably will) the GAA will have to pick up the bill

• Club players picked for their County will have a clear financial incentive not to risk injury at Club level. The Club/County divide will grow dramatically.

• Any chance we have of tackling the poison (and it is a poison) of paid managers in the GAA will be gone

• Volunteers will increasingly say: “I’m off!” They have in every other sport where payment was introduced. Just look at Club rugby in Ireland (if you can find it) ten years after pay-for-play came in.

And No, We Don’t Have To Do This!

Let’s remember a few basics that have got lost in the fog here:

• In the GAA nobody has to do anything! If players think the burdens are too great, they should walk away … just like the rest of us should. We’re volunteers, ALL of us!

• In the GAA there’s no such thing as an “Inter-County player”: we have Club players who happen to get picked for their County

• Amateurism and volunteerism are at the heart of what the GAA has been and done for 124 years: change that and you break the core GAA dynamic. And Ireland suffers disastrously as a result.

It’s our choice and ours alone whether we accept pay-for-play, however it’s dressed up. Oppose the grants. Let’s get back to doing what the GAA was set up to do, providing “no charge” gaelic opportunities for the people of Ireland. Join us at www.ofonebelief.org

O Wad Some Pow’r

The great Robert Burns put it as only he could:

“O wad some pow’r the giftie gie us

To see oursels as others see us”

In that light what about this from the Mayor of Wexford, George Lawlor, at last weekend’s Leinster Convention:

“Some people who seem to be shouting the loudest seem to be abandoning the fact that were it not for the GAA they would not be in the economic circumstances they find themselves at the current time. Also, in relation to power bases in the GAA, it has to be said that the day when a club secretary or chairman or county board delegate decide they want to go on strike, I think that’s the time you will see who are the powerhouse and who are the engine room within this organisation.”

Confused? Not Half As Much As We Are!

“I would be surprised if county boards made a decision on a document that they haven’t seen.” Pauric Duffy on 3 March 2008.

So how come Central Council could make a decision on 16 February, on the same document it hadn’t seen either, to seek Congress’ “satisfaction” with that document and its contents? We certainly expressed surprise then … but who else did?

Is there just a wee bit of double standards at work here?

And Finally, Keep The Faith, All 950+ Of You! The Next Month is Critical!

The mantra for opposing pay-for-play in the GAA remains the same. We work within (and want to protect!) the GAA’s structures and systems … so:

• Bring this issue up in your Club and bring it to your County Committee to swell the very significant tide of GAA opposition to it
• Make sure your voice is heard when it reaches the floor of Congress
• Make sure your Central Council delegate reflects your County’s feelings when this issue is debated at Central Council on 17 March
• Talk to people about the damage pay-for-play will do to the GAA … and how Ireland will suffer as a result
• Keep hammering home the point that nobody in the GAA has to do anything: we’re all volunteers … and if the burdens are too much we should just walk away or reduce our input

• Above all, in the GAA we don’t pay people to play our games!

To close on another positive note, the 950^th person registered with us yesterday. Not bad for a small rump of malcontents!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 12:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Last Saturday’s National GAA Club Forum brought well over 300 GAA Club people from every County in Ireland to Croke Park. From the first part of the day to its closing session one consistent message dominated the proceedings:”We want to strengthen our amateur status and retain our volunteer base: these things aren’t for sale.”

Time-after-time this message came up loud and clear from the floor. People are open to all sorts of other changes … but these core values remain sacrosanct. If there’d been a vote taken on Saturday, pay-for-play would have been cast to oblivion. Let’s finish the job at Congress on April 11/12 in Sligo!

Full Steam Ahead to Congress

Getting the pay-for-play issue onto the agenda for Congress was a huge achievement. It leaves things a very long way away from the fait accompli attempted on 8 December last. In Pauric Duffy’s own words on Saturday last, we’ll “get a proper discussion there”.

But things remain unclear in other ways. We don’t yet know for example what motions will be on the Clár at Congress. We understand Fermanagh’s motion, unanimously endorsed at the Fermanagh County Convention, has been rejected. Yet we equally understand that a yet-to-be-framed Central Council motion on the issue will be on the Clár. To a lot of us there’s just something not-quite-right there.

Replying to a question posed at the National Club Forum on Saturday our President Nickey Brennan spelled out his position as follows:

• The grants/awards/pay-for-play proposals will be published by mid-March
• They will be circulated freely within the GAA and beyond
• There will be full consultation prior to Congress
• They will be debated openly, honestly and fully at Congress

If “mid-March” is Friday 14 March, that effectively leaves just three weeks maximum for a “full consultation” prior to Congress. That compares very poorly with the time given to debate issues such as player burnout; the hurling championships; and, of course, things like Rule 21 and the opening up of Croke Park.

But our task remains the same, to get this issue debated and then rejected in such a way that it never comes back onto the GAA table again. And we’re still of the view that any proposal to give money to GAA people, players or otherwise, requires a change to Rule 11.

No doubt Central Council’s motion will seek such a change. If it doesn’t … we’ll be back!

The Tide Keeps Flowing

The O’Connell’s Boys Club in Dublin has submitted a motion to its County Committee seeking to mandate the Dublin Central Council delegate and delegates to Congress to vote against any attempt at pay-for-play in the GAA. The O’Raghallaigh Club in Drogheda is doing the same in Louth. And one of Ireland’s great GAA Clubs, St Gall’s of Antrim, has voted against grants/awards/pay-for-play.

All of us should be doing similar things through our own Clubs and County Committees. Saturday’s Club Forum gave a very clear message about where the grass-roots stand on all this.

It would be criminal to let them down.

Why The Grants/Awards/Pay-for-Play Scheme Has To Be Opposed

There are many, many reasons why we shouldn’t touch the grants/awards/pay-for-play scheme with a barge pole. Here’s twenty to start with:

• It flies in the face of our Rule 11 which clearly states that “a player, team, official or member shall not accept payment in cash or in kind in conjunction with the playing of gaelic games”. As such it represents an attempt at the most fundamental shift ever in GAA ethos and policy. And it shifts the entire focus within the GAA from “We” to “Me”.

• It is a policy which, if introduced, will never be reversed: once the principle of paying players is introduced, experience in every other sport in every other setting shows that the only issue for debate thereafter is: “How much more?”

• The GAA is about giving, not taking. The GAA gives the money it earns back to the people of Ireland in the form of facilities; coaching; games development; and equipment. Only by retaining our amateur status can we ensure this reinvestment continues, generation after generation.
• Playing for your County is a choice, not an obligation. Always, always, always in the GAA you do what you do because you want to. If you don’t want to … then don’t do it. That brilliantly simple concept has served us so well for 124 years. This proposed arrangement totally undermines that understanding.

• Paying this money establishes a dangerous precedent. The GAA will have to pick up the tab when the government, as it inevitably will, drops out

• Inflation and claimed “increased-costs-of-playing-gaelic-games” will have to be factored in

• There is no moral argument for not paying the same money to the inter-County back-room people who put in the same time and effort. Counties will have to come up with the money and the arrangements to do this.

• Once we start paying back-room teams, there is no moral argument in turn for not paying other County Committee people: they put in as much (if not more) time and effort and without them there would be no County GAA to start with.

• It is not at all clear who carries the legal liabilities (of which there will be many) in all this. The first case for “wrongful dismissal” or whatever from a County panel is inevitably on its way.

• The “Bosman” and other EU rulings mean once money becomes involved and “restraint of trade” issues invariably follow, the GAA won’t have a legal leg to stand on in terms of stopping players transferring to Counties where their financial prospects are better

• There will be a financial incentive regime in place in the GAA which discourages elite players from putting themselves at risk in Club games

• There’ll be no incentive or justification to address the current poison of paid managers in the GAA … which should be an absolute priority for the GAA

• Some players will inevitably object because they have to play more matches than players from other Counties to reach the Championship Quarter-Finals and be awarded the money that comes with that. This will fatally undermine the structure of our Championships.

• The first headline as follows is already on its way: “That refereeing decision cost us ‘so-many-thousand’ euros”

• We will have a scenario where County A’s players get the money on the basis of attending 80% of, say, 100 sessions whilst County B’s players will get it on the basis of attending 80% of, say, 50 sessions

• The scheme seriously expects people with full-time jobs to “visit schools and youth facilities” as part of their new “GAA contractual arrangements”. The costs of those school and other visits will have to be picked up by someone: that someone will be the Counties.

• The GPA has already claimed players should be entitled to a share of TV money (”HQ Warned to Share TV Money Around”, Setanta, 23 October 2007). The GAA will have no moral (let alone legal) justification for opposing such a future GPA claim … paid directly to them of course by a third party, the TV company. (No doubt it will be backed up by the threat of strike action - which in the new pay-for-play context it will actually be a strike)

• The rest of the GAA is still expected to fundraise to provide elite facilities when the users of those facilities are going to have to be paid to use them

• The new contractual requirements placed on players are the diametric opposite to the supposed concern with over-burdening players … and on which we recently held a Special Congress

• The GAA will be morally and legally unable to oppose a sponsor who offers a County panel a large, performance-based, sum of money to win a title

And Finally … Keep The Faith … All 900+ Of You!

The mantra for opposing pay-for-play in the GAA remains the same. We work within (and want to protect!) the GAA’s structures and systems … so:

• Bring this issue up in your Club and bring it to your County Committee to swell the growing tide of GAA opposition to it
• Make sure your voice is heard when it reaches the floor of Congress
• Make sure your Central Council delegate reflects your County’s feelings the next time this issue is debated at Central Council
• Talk to people about the damage pay-for-play will do to the GAA … and how Ireland will suffer as a result
• Keep hammering home the point that nobody in the GAA has to do anything: we’re all volunteers … and if the burdens are too much we should just walk away or reduce our input
• Above all, in the GAA we don’t pay people to play our games!

Finally, the 900^th person registered with us last week. Not bad for a small rump of malcontents!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 11:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Our DRA hearing took place on Friday night last in The Raddisson Hotel, Dublin Airport. The DRA Tribunal was Michael O’Connell (Kerry, and son of the legendary Mick O’Connell); Damian Mahon (Derry, City Solicitor to Derry City Council); and Mick Loftus (former GAA President). In true GAA fashion these men are volunteers … putting their time and their huge expertise at the disposal of the rest of us. No word of grants there!As a result of the DRA process the GAA’s representatives made it crystal clear that:

• There never was any agreement
• There certainly is no agreement at present
• There will be no agreement in future without the full and proper approval of Congress

It’s a huge turnaround face from what we were all presented with as a “done deal” back on 8 December. In one of the night’s more bizarre moments, the GAA claimed during the hearing that “any reasonable person” reading their press release of 8 December would have had no doubts that the whole issue would have to be decided by Congress.

That saw virtually every eyebrow in the room hit the ceiling! If that had been the case, Ireland’s clearly full of “unreasonable” people. One of these is evidently our President, Nickey Brennan who as late as 13 January in an interview with The Irish Mail on Sunday was clear that only if (other) people submitted motions, would the issue “get an airing” at Congress.

One of the other sad experiences of the night was the GAA’s refusal to give the Tribunal an undertaking that it would actually do what it promised to do. Because of that we sought an adjournment of the hearing so that the case could be re-opened if the GAA didn’t live up to its promises. The DRA ruled in our favour on that issue. That means our claim that giving money to GAA players breaks Rule 11 is still alive … and it remains and will remain our contention that any approval of a grant scheme at Congress requires a change to Rule 11.

We’ve attached a press release on the DRA hearing, you can download it from the link below:

grants_agreement_in_tatters.doc

Someone aptly described the whole grants/awards debacle as “the-deal-that-never-was”. Our task is now to make sure it’s “the-deal-that-never-is”!!!

There’s still plenty of work ahead.

In the Meantime … Be Afraid … Be Very Afraid!

Part of the argument in favour of the scheme-that-never-was but which was nonetheless launched on us on 8 December last, was the claim that the payment of money to elite players for playing gaelic games actually copper-fastened our amateur status.

That claim certainly flummoxed the plain people of Ireland!

But it would equally hold no water at all as far as some very “un-plain” legal people at the heart of the EU are concerned. Following a case taken to the European Court of Justice by Christelle Deliege, the Court ruled in December 2005 that since Mme Deliege received money, including some from her own judo federation as grants to improve her sporting performance (now where have we heard that before?) as a result of taking part in judo, her sporting activity actually constituted an economic activity … and therefore enjoys the full protection of Community law.

On that basis, if we give money to our players then all our tried-and-tested GAA rules and understandings about registrations; transfers; and even the management of our games immediately go out the window to be replaced by EU work/employment-related rules and regulations about restraint of trade; image rights; access to GAA income; and so on.

It would never happen?

Try that one with someone you know in any other sport that’s gone down the pay-for-play route! In the meantime, enjoy the last remaining kick of the “old” GAA. It isn’t going to be there for much longer!

Going to Congress: Can You Get Your Head Around This?

We understand that Saturday’s Central Council meeting, at the request of Management, voted to send a motion to Congress seeking approval for its grants scheme. (This was despite GAA press officer Feargal McGill being quoted in last Thursday’s Irish Times as saying the grants issue would not be discussed at the meeting because its only order of business was the Special Congress the same day … but then positions here do seem to shift on a daily basis!)

Now tell us if we’re wrong on this but here’s our understanding of the current position:

• On Friday night at the DRA, Central Council confirms there is no agreement nor was there ever any agreement
• On Saturday morning Central Council votes to send a motion to Congress about a grants agreement (that they’ve told us doesn’t exist)
• Central Council is therefore backing a motion on a scheme that doesn’t exist and to which it’s not committed
• Even better, Monday’s Evening Herald (28 January) has a GAA spokesperson telling us that on Saturday past, the motion that Central Council voted to submit to Congress has yet to be framed by Management

So there we have it. Central Council is committed to nothing except to a motion that Management has yet to draft on an agreement that’s yet to be framed.

And in all of this, still not a word for us ordinary GAA people (who keep the whole show going) on “our” GAA website.

There is in life something known as The First Law of Holes. It states: “When you’re in one … stop digging!”

Sounds like very good advice here!

And Finally … Keep This Issue Alive!

The mantra for opposing pay-for-play in the GAA remains the same:

• We work within (and want to protect!) the GAA’s structures and systems
• Bring the issue up in your Club
• Bring it to the National GAA Club Forum on 9 February
• Bring it to your County Committee and swell the growing tide of County opposition to it
• Make sure your voice is heard when it reaches the floor of Congress
• Ask your Central Council delegate just what went on at the 8 December and 26 January meetings
• Make sure your Central Council delegate reflects your County’s feelings the next time this issue is debated at Central Council
• Talk to people about the damage pay-for-play will do to the GAA … and how Ireland will suffer as a result
• Keep hammering home the point that nobody in the GAA has to do anything: we’re all volunteers … and if the burdens are too much we should just walk away or reduce our input

• Above all, in the GAA we don’t pay people to play our games!

This past week has seen huge progress in the campaign against pay-for-play in the GAA. The DRA has delivered a major result. But we’ve still work to do.

Let’s finish with another wee bit of Churchill (well, Viscount Brendan Bracken, a member of Churchill’s wartime cabinet was the son of JK Bracken, one of the founders of the GAA!):

“This is not the end.

This is not even the beginning of the end.

But it may perhaps be the end of the beginning!”

Beir bua!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 2:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

To its eternal credit the Dublin County Board, as we reported in an earlier circular, asked its Clubs to discuss and vote on the November agreement. We understand Naomh Olaf was the first to do so, last Thursday night. The result? A whacking 74% to 26% AGAINST!The discussion then moved on to the meeting of the Dublin County Board on Monday night. The result here? Another resounding rejection of the scheme with at least 35 delegates speaking out against it. Dublin’s Clubs were very clear about two things. They don’t want the scheme and they were bitterly disappointed that the whole thing had been handled as a “done deal” at a high level and they had not been consulted.

A very consistent pattern is emerging here. When ordinary GAA people have their say, they’re very strongly against this move to pay-for-play. So far that’s been the case with votes in Armagh; Derry; Down; Dublin; Fermanagh; Mayo; and Tyrone. In fact the only vote we know of that’s gone in favour of the arrangements was … yes, you’ve guessed, the fateful 8 December one by Central Council! Surely it’s not a case of everyone being out of step but “Our Johnny”?

We also believe that the GAA’s Management Committee was by no means unanimous when it voted on this issue. But convention evidently is that Management votes as one when it goes to Central Council … so a small majority translates into a unanimous vote. It all seems a wee bit Stalinist! But if we add the Management Committee dissenters to those Counties which have clearly set their faces against the agreement … then surely Central Council’s true position on the arrangement should be far from the near-unanimity we were told occurred back on 8 December? If it’s not, then our GAA systems are worryingly dysfunctional.

DRA Affairs

We’ve formally gone back to the DRA asking it to hold a hearing on our submission. It’s now been lodged for over a month and with the deadline for motions to Congress fast approaching we feel it’s reasonable that our case should be heard by 24 January. We’ll keep you posted.

The GAA’s “Iraq War” …? Are There Certain Similarities?

A small, remote group of high-powered people enter into a secret arrangement with third parties … wave a nonsensical threat (Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction/GPA Strike) … refuse to consult the rest of us … insist on committing us to something we neither needed nor wanted … break the fundamental rules … shift the rationale after it happened (waving UN motions and phrases like “no binding decision”) … leave the subject (Iraq or the GAA) in far worse shape than they found it …effectively create a civil war … but continue to insist they did nothing wrong.

It’s enough to make you cry!

Well, You Have To Laugh!

Following Central Council’s clear confusion about what it actually decided on 8 December, one of you came back to us with the following:

“The situation gets more bizarre by the day. I think between “It’s not binding!” and “It’s not pay for play …and never will be!!” I have to share with u now, encouraged by this novel approach to logic, that when I approached my wife last night to tell her that I considered our marriage vows no longer binding and wished to have a meeting at another date to ratify that “decision”, if it was a decision … or perhaps not, she planted her very nicely rounded knee in my groin … but, said later that it never happened … and in any case if it did happen it was only a matter of showing me how much she loved me … or not … and whatever ur having urself !!”

Yes, They Said It!

Some words of wisdom from a variety of sources:

“The reality is that this issue (ie grants) requires the collective decision of the Association through Central Council following consideration and debate, particularly at county level”

Nickey Brennan 22 April 2006 (Hmmmm!!!)

“The GAA should maintain its position as the country’s leading amateur sporting body and should continue its policy of not paying its players for playing, whether directly or indirectly: this should include not paying any form of reimbursement for wages/salaries for time lost as a result of either playing or training.”

The often referred-to but rarely-quoted CLCG Amateur Status Report 1997, Paragraph 2.8(a)

“What makes the GAA so great is the fact that you have to sacrifice so much to play football matches. I would never like to see that change and I think the grants could be the start of something bigger.”

Philip Jordan, Double All-Ireland winner

“Paying players, by whatever devious means concocted, is dangerous and ultimately self-defeating as far as the amateur ethos of our great association is concerned.”

Paddy Buggy, past-GAA President, in January 2008

“What used to p*** me off was players, young fellas, telling you how to play the game - telling you the sacrifices they’d made. Telling you that there should be a government grant at the end of it. How they felt their image rights were being infringed on and all that. You’re playing for your county, like. There are kids out there who’d love to do it. Kids who can’t get out of bed in the morning who’d love to be there. That’s not grá mo chroí stuff - it’s a fact. I hated that attitude of these people who were giving the impression it was a chore, that being a modern day inter-county footballer was tough and ‘I’m missing out on overtime here’ “.

Dara Ó Cinnéide, All-Ireland winning Captain

“Our clubs want the amateur status of the GAA protected and are opposed to the grants scheme. Delegates at our meeting let it be known in no uncertain manner that they had no hand, act or part in the (grants) decision making”

Dublin County Chair Jerry Harrington

And no, that first one doesn’t change the second time you read it:

“The reality is that this issue (ie grants) requires the collective decision of the Association through Central Council following consideration and debate, particularly at county level”

Nickey Brennan 22 April 2006

And Finally … Keep This Issue Alive!

The mantra for opposing pay-for-play in the GAA remains the same:

• We work within (and want to protect!) the GAA’s structures and systems
• Bring the issue up in your Club
• Bring it to the National GAA Club Forum on 9 February
• Bring it to your County Committee and swell the growing tide of County opposition to it
• Make sure it reaches the floor of Congress: it’s becoming increasingly clear there’ll be a Congress debate on all this … but we need the motions submitted!
• Ask your Central Council delegate just what went on at the 8 December meeting
• Talk to people about the damage pay-for-play will do to the GAA … and how Ireland will suffer as a result
• Keep hammering home the point that nobody in the GAA has to do anything: we’re all volunteers … and if the burdens are too much we should just walk away or reduce our input

• Above all, in the GAA we don’t pay people to play our games!

Thank you again for your support!
There’s a growing bit of light at the end of the tunnel!
Thank you for lighting the torch!
Beir bua!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Can you believe it … apparently Central Council took no decision at all back on 8 December! Well, at least that’s the thrust of their opening defence to our DRA submission (as leaked to the media today). Central Council’s response to the DRA is that “no binding decision has as yet been made” … this from a body that on 8 December publicly proclaimed: “Ard Chomhairle now approves, in principle, the agreement reached in November 2007″.Part of our problem with the pay-for-play debacle was the total lack of consultation with units and the membership. These recent developments suggest Central Council has been, and remains, all at sea here. Even more disappointing, it evidently now hasn’t the courage of its convictions to defend its stance to its brothers and sisters across the GAA via the mechanism Congress put in place to do precisely that.

The GAA we were all reared in was one where you always tried to do the decent thing.

What about it, Central Council? If you didn’t decide anything on 8 December then what actually did you vote for? Why has the central leadership of the GAA spent a month trying to tell us it was now all a done deal? If it was to come back to a later Central Council meeting why did you not allow the rest of us the chance to develop a discussion during those months? And what exactly does the word “principle” mean any more?

That strange sound you hear in the distance is a combination of chickens coming home to roost and the bottom of the barrel being scraped. Sic transit gloria GAA.

A New Year … Same Issue!

Anyway, welcome back … and a happy New Year to you all! We’ve taken a break since before Christmas but you have grown significantly in numbers and there’s now 830 of you registered here. Let’s see if we could get 1,000 on board!

The Cavan Meeting

Contrary to what some parts of the media reported, almost 150 people turned up at the meeting in the Cavan Crystal Hotel on 19 December … though they looked a bit lost in an outsize room!

What was interesting was that 13 (yes, 13!!!) Counties across three provinces were represented. Included were a County Chair; an immediate past County Secretary; a County Vice-President; several County Committee people; and one of the GAA’s leading County sponsors.

The discussion replicated that in The Elk and a summary of it (courtesy of Fermanagh’s Hugh Kelly and Derry’s Seamus Mullan) can be downloaded below:

cavan_crystal_meeting.doc

The conclusions remain largely the same, ie it’s up to all of us to keep the pay-for-play deal on the agenda all the way to Congress.

Dublin Debates!

Good old GAA democracy is obviously alive and well in Dublin. The Dublin County Committee has asked the County’s GAA Clubs to discuss the pay-for-play deal during January. A number of Clubs are holding special meetings on the issue so if you’re A Dub (native or otherwise) make sure you’re at your Club’s meeting … or make sure your Club holds one.

The coming weeks will determine the type of GAA we’ll hand on to the next generation. Don’t let this core issue go by default!

Other Meetings?

A number of you have emailed about the possibility of holding more public meetings on this issue. The key thing about the meetings to date is that they’ve been locally-organised by local gaels. That’s the only approach that will work. This can’t be about “rent-a-crowd” or about “small rumps” parachuting in to push this agenda in different places across Ireland.

If you think a meeting’s a good idea in your place then go ahead and organise one. Given Central Council’s current manoeuvres it’s all the more important to keep the momentum going. If you email us we’ll send you on an outline of the format that’s worked very well so far.

Don’t worry about numbers. The important thing is to keep the debate going. After all, it only took an attendance of 14 in Hayes Hotel to start the whole show!

“Small rumps …???”

Re-Shaping This Website

All this work is done on that good, old-fashioned GAA basis … ie on a volunteer basis and because we think it’s worthwhile. But it takes a lot of time and has a financial cost involved. Several of you want the site/page to be a bit broader. Resources mean it can’t be inter-active and a number of you have expressed a bit of disappointment at that. We’ve tried to get back to people who have made specific comments … but not all the email addresses submitted here will accept emails back from us.

Anyway, we’re going to try to extend the site, primarily with a view to posting on it information and background pieces that spell out what pay-for-play in the GAA will mean. Hopefully we’ll have that up-and-running in the next couple of weeks. But in the meantime be patient with us!

And Finally … Keep This Issue Alive!

The mantra for opposing pay-for-play in the GAA remains the same:

• We work within (and want to protect!) the GAA’s structures and systems
• Bring the issue up in your Club
• Bring it to the National GAA Club Forum on 9 February
• Bring it to your County Committee
• Make sure it reaches the floor of Congress
• Ask your Central Council delegate just what went on at the 8 December meeting
• Talk to people about the damage pay-for-play will do to the GAA … and how Ireland will suffer as a result
• Keep hammering home the point that nobody in the GAA has to do anything: we’re all volunteers … and if the burdens are too much we should just walk away or reduce our input
• In the GAA we don’t pay people to play our games

Thank you again for your support!
There’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel!
Beir bua!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 10:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The meeting in Cavan organised by gaels from Longford and north Leinster goes ahead tomorrow (Wednesday) night as follows;

Wednesday 19 December
7.30pm
Cavan Crystal Hotel

We know the week that’s in it … and the demands that’s on people’s time. But pay-for-play is the agenda item for GAA people … so if you can, come along tomorrow night. You’ll be out the door by 9.00pm. Can you give 90 minutes to defend a core GAA principle?

DRA … Drastic Action?

When we set out to oppose pay-for-play we agreed to do it through the GAA system … and to all the while play the ball, not the man.

The DRA is part of the GAA system so we’re using it.

The appeal has been lodged and is being supported/developed by a number of true GAA “legal-eagles” … all on that real GAA basis, ie “No Charge!”

As of now there’s been no feedback from the DRA but we’ll keep you informed re developments.

A Flowing Tide?

As of last night, the pay-for-play arrangements approved by Central Council have been either directly opposed or seriously questioned at or by the Clare; Cork; Derry; Down; Fermanagh; Mayo; Tipperary; and Tyrone Conventions or County Committee meetings.

This story isn’t over yet!

A Flowing Tide, Part 2?

The article below appeared (totally unsolicited by us) in the news section of last Sunday’s “Sunday Independent”. What can we say … other than read it and weep?

“A bright new professional world casts a dark shadow”

The GAA is plunging itself into an abyss it will never surface from, writes Jerome Reilly

“THE taxman has had a moment of clarity that cuts through much of the cant and hypocrisy surrounding the gaelic players’ grant scheme.

The Revenue Commissioners consider grants to athletes as income which may be liable for taxation. Gaelic players are now on a wage, the tax inspectors believe.

When those threatening letters with a harp on the envelope start to land on the doormat, those who have fooled themselves their new grants are not pay-for-play might want to reconsider their position.

Professionalism has slipped in the backdoor of the GAA like an unwelcome guest at Christmas dinner.

Those who publicly oppose the scheme have been ridiculed as a “small rump of malcontents” by Gaelic Players Association spokesman Dessie Farrell.

Not only is that a slur on men who have given a lifetime to the Association it’s also wrong in fact. There is a growing groundswell of opinion among ordinary members of of the GAA that the new grant scheme undermines the amateur ethos and will do long-term damage to the national games.

The shabby maneuverings of last week to stop the individual voices of disapproval from county boards growing into an outright chorus does little to change the situation.

Croke Park might not be handling the cash, the provincial and county boards may not be administering the loot but it is still pay-for-play. And the actual grants scheme itself reinforces the “professionalism” that will now become part and parcel of gaelic games.

The grants scheme has at its heart the Annual Team Performance Scheme. This will be based on the performance of teams during the Championships and will apply to the 12 football teams qualifying for the third round of the All-Ireland qualifiers or reaching the provincial final and the 12 teams in the McCarthy Cup. The level of award available to teams will be calculated on a sliding scale.

So not only is it pay-for-play, it’s performance-related pay. In the same way that soccer players are on “win bonuses” and cash rewards for winning the Premiership, Championship, the FA Cup or the European competitions, the best gaelic players will receive more money.

Though the players of less successful counties will also get money under what is coyly referred to as the “annual support scheme for the development of excellence” there will be a two-tier system even within the inter-county ranks.

So to paraphrase George Orwell, inter-county players are “more equal” than ordinary club players who leave blood sweat and tears on club pitches around the country and some successful inter-country footballers from Kerry, Tyrone or Armagh are “more equal” than the county players of Carlow, Leitrim and Tipperary who are unlikely to win the All-Ireland in the immediate future.

The performance begs the question will the new scheme only serve to widen the gap between the GAA football elite and the rest.

It is only December, the time (as Micheal O Muireachartaig so memorably put it) of soft and sometimes foolish “winter talk.” Yet most GAA followers will accurately guess the identity of at least nine of the 12 football teams that will contest the latter stages of the championship next year.

With extra “grants” these players can perhaps take a few more days rest from work, train a little harder, get a little better. The comparisons between the big four of the English Premiership with the bigger revenues creating bigger success are not as far fetched as one might expect.

The decision by Donal McAnallen, brother of the late Tyrone Allstar Cormac, to resign as secretary of the Higher Education Colleges GAA Council should shake those who love gaelic games to the core.

He admitted his decision was influenced by the recent agreement to give players grants and said his reasons were both practical and from a sense of disillusionment.

When someone so steeped in all that is great about the games becomes disillusioned then there is a real threat to the future of an organisation that more than any other in these islands is based on volunteerism.

“I have no income at present and I in debt. My dedication to GAA committee work has cost me too much time, effort, stress, and my health at times also,” McAnallen stated.

He added: “Up to now I kept involved because I got a sense of fulfilment from doing that work, as I thought the association served a greater good in Irish life, and I thought everyone was working towards the same ends. But since the weekend, I realised that the association is changing direction altogether.

“Suddenly I knew I had lost interest in doing the voluntary work if the sport ceases to be for sport’s sake. “Many GAA volunteers, including some of my fellow committee members, have made similar sacrifices. Now I wonder whether it was all worthwhile,” he added.

Surely that view is now rife throughout the country. The GAA as we know it is headed towards the abyss. The bright new world will be fuelled by greed.”

Keep It Going!

There’s now 566 of you out there.

You’re the heart and soul of this campaign. There’s a few things you could do to stop pay-for-play:

• Bring this issue up in your Club

• Try to get it discussed at your County Convention

• Talk to people about it: tell them why we think the way we do.

Above all, keep your commitment and enthusiasm!

Remember Cavan on Wednesday night!

In case we don’t have another communication in the next week … thank you for your commitment to all of this. It hasn’t been easy … or pleasant.

Le gach dea-ghuí i gcomhair na Nollag is na h-athbhliana!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Fellow gaels in north Leinster have arranged a public meeting on the pay-for-play arrangements as follows:

Wednesday 19 December
7.30 pm
Cavan Crystal Hotel, Cavan Town

Let’s see what the south Ulster/north Leinster/north Connacht view on all this stuff is. If you’re from there, then turn up at the Cavan Crystal next Wednesday night. Bring others with you … and tell even more people about it. This is one of the most important things you’ll be asked to do to help reverse the pay-for-play agenda … so let’s have a turnout that makes a statement!

If you’re registered on this site you’re a believer. If you’re a believer, be there!
(If anyone sees a bearded gentlemen in a red suit … invite him along!)

After Last Saturday …

After the approval of the pay-for-play arrangements last Saturday - by Central Council only, remember (and in my official guide Central Council is just one of five levels of “jurisdiction” within the GAA, the other four being Clubs; Counties; Provinces; and Congress) - what’s now to stop this scenario:

• Millionaire A offers County A’s Senior Football Panel members €/£20,000 a man to win the All-Ireland
• He offers Player B from County B €/£50,000 to come on board … and gives him a job/address in County A
• All parties sign an agreement stating that they “recognise that the GAA is an Amateur Association and state their absolute commitment to the maintenance of the amateur status of the Association. They state that nothing in this agreement shall be allowed to undermine the amateur status of Gaelic games”. (Does that last bit sound familiar?)

In the new post-8 December world how can the GAA legally or morally oppose such a scenario? It’s performance-based; County panel-specifc; isn’t “our” money; and will be paid/distributed by a third party. And there’s a paper guaranteeing the amateur status. So it clearly isn’t pay for play! (It’s definitely time for that bearded gentleman in the red suit!)

Up Down! Up Tyrone!

Tyrone and Down will meet in next year’s Ulster SFC (GPA strikes etc permitting of course!). Whatever the outcome, we’ll know we have two true GAA counties going head-to-head.

On Sunday Down voted unanimously to reject last Saturday’s pay-for-play deal. On Tuesday night Tyrone voted 152:1 to reject any meddling with Rule 11 via grants or any other sleight-of-hand. Tyrone’s mathematics are interesting in that they almost certainly reflect the proper proportions involved in this whole issue. Don’t let’s pretend there isn’t a “GPA view”. There is. And it has a right to be heard. But for every GAA person holding that view we’d be very confident there’d be 150 who don’t hold it.

To its shame last Saturday made no attempt to reflect or seek the views of the 150.

You’re Growing … and Growing … and Growing!

As of last night, 12 December, there’s 521 of you out there. Thank you for supporting the opposition to pay-for-play.

We believe this is now on the agenda for Congress 2008. And we intend to keep the debate rolling right up until then. To do that we need your help.

• Stay with us!
• Keep raising this issue!
• Don’t accept that the fat lady has sung (she hasn’t even warmed up yet!)
• Keep reinforcing what the GAA’s really about!

And come to the Cavan Crystal Hotel next Wednesday night!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 2:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Despite the clear opportunity to defer and go out for consultation, Central Council went ahead and approved pay-for-play on Saturday. Having just driven a horse and cart through Rule 11, it was a wee bit rich of them to then tell the rest of us to go away and examine our consciences about breaches of amateur status at club and county level.Nonetheless there’s something in what they say. This cancer has been eating away at the insides of the GAA for a while. But just because you’ve a cancer in one place is no reason to start injecting yourself with botulism somewhere else!

Doire Abu!

Derry’s County Convention today unanimously passed a motion opposing grants/pay-for-play. They join Mayo as counties fully opposed to where the GAA is being brought to. Conventions are now coming thick and fast. Try to go to yours and make the case against the implementation of what Central Council passed on Saturday.

“Questions and Answers”

There may be a bit of coverage of pay-for-play on RTE’s Q&A tonight (Monday). Watch it and see … and get others to do likewise!

Not Our Style

Some of today’s media coverage was not good for our President, Nickey Brennan. We took no pleasure in it. Nickey’s our President, put there by us. In opposing pay-for-play we’re not about rubbishing anybody. What we are about is upholding a core GAA value.

What’s Next?

Some “malcontents” (by the way as of 10.00pm last night there’s 407 of you registered here) in the midlands and south of the country want to hold meetings along the lines of the Elk/Toome event. It’s not yet clear if the meetings will be held before or after Christmas … but as soon as anything’s organised we’ll let you know.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.