Secret GAA Coach: GAA clubs had better put juveniles first - for fear of a ‘Bosman Ruling’

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THOSE of a certain vintage will remember that great period of freedom in the 1990s. Mr Gorbachev gave us Glasnost and Perestroika, Mr Delors gave us Maastricht. We were living in the land of the free.

Then, a litigious Belgian footballer called Mark Bosman felt professional footballers should be able to freely transfer between clubs when out of contract. 

The European Court of Justice agreed. He won. We had the “Bosman Ruling”. So we could all travel, work, invest, and play football wherever we wanted. There were no barriers to entry.

So roll the clock onwards, and mindsets backwards 30 years.

A young boy from a neighbouring club applies to join another club. The basis of the transfer was that his old club could no longer field a team.

He had documentary evidence and supporting testimony from parents of players who had since left that club. He had moved schools and wanted to play with his school pals.

His club objected claiming they had a team. The organising “Cóiste” at the County Board agreed. The transfer request was rejected. (His parents compared the first hearing as being like a Kangaroo Court. The club and the “Cóiste” were aligned and even stayed back after the meeting as the parents left the room).

A subsequent appeal was rejected by the next level up at the County Board. Then the boy’s parents “lawyered up” with legal letters served without discrimination to club and county committees alike. 

As quickly as you could spell CCCC, the decision was overturned and the boy was allowed to transfer. The rationale — the Club Secretary of the former club did not sign his name as Gaeilge!

No reference to the interests of the boy or his well-being. This was no move to Saudi Arabia with a guaranteed salary and bonus.

This was a 14-year-old boy wanting to move from a Division 4 club to a Division 2 club to play hurling with his school friends. Only the lawyers made out on this sorry tale.

As the beneficiary of this transfer request, our club were supportive. We were biased of course.

The GAA transfer system for Juveniles is there for good reason. The GAA is built around community with the GAA club at the centre.

The rules around transfers and the difficulty in obtaining them prevents “glory hunting”. 

There have been cases where some bigger clubs in our county have gone on a charm offensive to entice the services of a 13-year-old with sights set on glory at Under 14. 

That is wrong and the GAA are right to defend smaller clubs.

Based on reports of the mentors of the boy when he joined us as his new club, it was clear that saga took its toll on the boy. Stress levels were high and bitterness developed.

You wonder that if the boy’s parents didn’t have the means to engage a lawyer, would he have continued playing? What would the child’s mental state have been? 

He only wanted to play hurling with his friends. He had no real designs on an inter-county career. He was a child. Thankfully he settled in with us eventually.

There were lessons in this for all of us in the club, as Juvenile mentors and as parents. Parents who bring their child to nursery at eight or nine years of age should be aware that they could find themselves quickly club-tied. 

No one tells the parents that it’s Hotel California Gaels — you can check in any time you like — but you can never leave. 

Perhaps the biggest lesson is for the GAA. The Official Guide of the GAA, in theory at least, allows due consideration for transfers.

The Code of Conduct points to the rights and feelings of a child, the practice is different though.

In practically always siding with the club that objects to Juvenile transfers, the GAA appears more interested in protecting the interests of the institution over the child.

That has echoes of another institution once dominant in Irish society… It is time for the GAA to take a more transparent, sensible, and child-centred approach to Juvenile transfers. If it doesn’t, it will have its very own “Bosman Ruling” on its hands.

As that great Gael, Mark Twain, once said: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.”