Counties facing funding cuts unless managers’ charter agreed
Croke Park will ask them to explain their failure to do so or face the possibility of being cut off from central financial resources such as gate receipts, broadcasting rights money and development grants.
At last Saturday’s Central Council meeting, it was revealed four unnamed counties have yet to draft charters, despite the deadline for doing so having passed at the end of March.
Rule 3.20 (c) of the GAA’s Official Guide states that: “A charter shall be drafted annually in each county, by the chairperson of the county committee on behalf of the clubs and the county committee, and county team manager(s) shall sign, prior to the appointment of the managers.
“The signing of the charter will indicate acceptance of the agreed policy of the county committee on the availability of players for club fixtures, training, and other matters relevant to the playing of club fixtures in the county.
“The charter for each county shall be forwarded to the Central Council by Mar 31 each year.”
The counties have been contacted by the GAA and asked to provide reasons as to the delay in finalising their charters, though the withholding of funding is only seen as a last resort.
“I wouldn’t say that the counties are being threatened with that, as it’s probably too strong a word,” said the GAA’s Head of Media Relations, Alan Milton.
“That is the penalty for non-compliance, though it may just be that it has been an administrative oversight on their part.”
The GAA is keen to ensure that the charter is respected, though in 2012 the association’s Director General Páraic Duffy said that he had doubts as to how strictly it was being applied.
“I have a sense that, in many instances, the charter is no more than a tick-box exercise,” he said, “and that a real opportunity to address a difficult problem is being lost.
“The responsibility lies firmly with the county committees,” he added.
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