Tommy Martin: Should the State subsidise elite sport or keep local clubs afloat?

GAA director general Tom Ryan, left, and president John Horan arrive at Dáil Éireann last week. The Oireachtas committee on Covid-19 heard the GAA, IRFU and FAI lament combined losses of €100m in 2020 and express fears about their very survival without the return of paying spectators. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

In the past week, sport issued a cry for help.

Ashen-faced top brass from the main sporting organisations prostrated themselves in front of government departments both here and in the UK. All painted a grim picture of what the absence of paying customers is doing to their financial health.