Jarlath Burns’s presidency has prioritised concerns for football and amateur status. Football is proving comparatively plain sailing
GAA president Jarlath Burns has made it clear he wants to improve the state of football and address amateurism. Photograph: Bryan Keane/InphoThey crashed into each other at the weekend’s Central Council meeting, as delegates pushed to reverse a seven-week-old decision to suspend preseason tournaments – setting a knee-jerk record for buyers’ remorse even by the GAA ’s elevated standards.
Amateurism was always going to be the more intractable issue. The subject of amateur status pops up periodically to be raked over by committees and work groups – all of which have struggled to find lasting solutions. Burns’s own view of the task facing his committee centred on the sustainability of intercounty activity and the vast sums being spent on preparing intercounty teams, estimated at about €40 million, but also on the challenges to player welfare.
Not alone would it create a fixed cost for counties but the contract could also make demands as to how teams were prepared and accommodated within a county’s structure.Although there hasn’t been a committee focused on amateur status for more than 25 years, there was a confrontation with the reality of managerial payments in 2012, when then director general Páraic Duffy produced a discussion document on the subject.
The problem with the ostensibly above board solution of regularised payment is that inevitably, there would be the prospect of other money entering the equation through outside benefactors, and the idea that a contract would somehow make managers more biddable sounds fanciful.
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