Payment on long finger

In any GAA table quiz worth its salt around Meath, a couple of old chestnuts will invariably crop up.

One question will relate to some aspect of the passing sequence in the build-up to Kevin Foley’s late goal in the four-in-a-row of 1991, or to David Beggy’s eventual winning point.

The other banker is that there’ll be a question about Meath’s sponsors at the beginning of that marathon four games against Dublin. Who were they?

The answer to the latter is O’Reilly Transport, the company that long-time backers Kepak succeeded for the third of that four game marathon.

In the first year of sponsorship of GAA jerseys, plastering logos on the front of county jerseys raised many more pressing questions however. Was this the beginning of the commercialisation of Gaelic games, of the association selling its soul? Was it the thin end of a thick wedge that would inevitably lead to players demanding a slice of the income and a form of pay-for-play?

Interestingly, counties have the option of multiple sponsors’ logos on their jerseys these days and most don’t even avail of it.

A similar debate is brewing again though, ever since the GAA embraced history -or snubbed its nose at it, depending on your persuasion — by signing a broadcast deal with Sky Sports last April.

The day after that accord was revealed, Joe Duffy’s Liveline was thronged with complaints. Pat, in Kilkenny, said the only positive from placing 14 Championship games behind Sky’s pay wall was, hopefully, that “some of this money will filter down to the players.”

It hasn’t, of course, though the growing feeling is that the camel’s back may finally be about to break on the pay-for-play issue. The following month, while the smell of sulphur still hung in the air, 15% of respondents in a nationwide poll claimed the Sky deal represented the ‘first step towards paying players’.

Perhaps more significantly, almost one in two members of the public disagreed ‘with the GAA’s policy of not paying its players’.

Picking up on the apparent whiff of discontent, one of the GAA’s most respected pundits, former All-Ireland winning Offaly manager Eugene McGee stated last month that, “part-time payment could happen in 10 years’ time because the public at large are getting a bit sensitive about this. They feel that a lot of players should get some recompense, they work so hard.”

Another All-Ireland winning manager, Dublin’s Pat Gilroy, has predicted that the GAA will face “the same challenges” as rugby, which moved from an amateur to professional footing. He said this will be especially so, “if the sport (GAA) takes off in the UK and United States, driven by TV broadcasting.”

If all of this represents an apparent groundswell of opinion, a lust for change, the GAA’s top official, Director General Paraic Duffy, certainly isn’t feeling it.

Asked to account for the last six months or so and the heightened pay-for-play discussion, Duffy shrugged.

“There’s a certain time of the year when all these issues come up again — at the end of the year,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, it’s simply not on the agenda.

“I mean, we have debated all of this before, these issues. The GPA are committed to an amateur organisation, we’re committed to an amateur organisation.

“We want to look after our players as well as we possibly can. I would see that we would always try to improve our players welfare facilities but as far as pay-for-play is concerned, that’s not on my or anyone’s agenda. It’s not going to happen.

“I just don’t see any demand (for it) or from our players by and large. We’re an amateur organisation and we’re going to stay an amateur organisation.”

It is a tricky situation for Duffy and the GAA’s top brass. Many of those who have been vocal on the pay-for-play issue aren’t even in possession of the full facts. Like the fact that the Sky deal isn’t worth a whole pile more to the GAA than the previous broadcast package, when nobody was talking about redistributing the income. Or the fact that, for the most part, whatever money comes into the GAA is divvied straight back out in grants and development aid. The Grab All Association? Try the Give it Away Association.

Or the fact that the GAA now funds the GPA who are there to make the players’ lives’ easier. Perhaps this is where any pay-for-play demand from players or the public will ultimately be headed off, in the form of enhanced player welfare initiatives.

“A few years ago, I thought the level of commitment from players was at saturation point but it seems since that every year it goes up a notch to a new level,” acknowledged GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell.

“On the one hand it’s great for the games themselves but on the other hand, what gives? You have to ask that question. It’s interesting.

“I know from the work we’ve done on the ground, there would be a sense that definitely players are giving more and more commitment and need to be supported in ways that are commensurate to that commitment.

“Now what that looks like is another question and players will have different views on that.

“I think the over arching issue around any pay-for-play is what that looks like. Any suggestion that the game would change demonstrably from that local, parochial tribalism to something else, well, most players, supporters and people in the GAA family wouldn’t want to see that happen.”

What the players think

Aidan O’Shea, Mayo footballer

“Probably people will get paid eventually. The players are (currently) probably the only ones on All-Ireland final day that don’t get paid. We get what, €500 for getting Olympics style drug testing and that might do you for a weekend away in Dublin. That’s about it.”

Paul Galvin, former Kerry footballer

“People say that professionalism is unsustainable — I look at it now and I think that amateurism is becoming unsustainable.”

Niall Quinn, former Dublin minor hurler and professional soccer player

“I can’t see how we can continue to develop sport in Ireland on the basis of voluntary effort and involvement, including GAA players.”

Benny Tierney, former Armagh goalkeeper

“Professionalism in our association could never work and would effectively destroy our wonderful games. Take a look at what has happened to soccer and, in particular, the Premier League in England, where greed and avarice have practically brought the game to its knees.”

Colm Cooper, Kerry footballer

“If you asked me would I have loved to have got paid to play GAA? Of course. Does it stop me giving everything I can? Absolutely not. Some people would say they’d never want to be a professional GAA player. I will definitely say I did. I wish I could get up every morning and train once or twice a day to get ready for matches and be a full-time GAA player.

“Absolutely, no question I definitely would. Leaving the money side of it aside, the opportunity to do what they do, the adrenaline rush must be amazing.”