Kilkenny chairman backing players

KILKENNY GAA chairman Ned Quinn last night backed the strong stance taken by top hurlers in the county over Croke Park funding for the All Ireland champions.

Members of the Kilkenny panel found themselves racing around a greyhound track in the city last week in a bid to raise money for a team holiday. They are also unhappy the 60,000 euro received from Central Council and the Leinster Council actually includes 30,000 euro set aside by Guinness for the All Ireland winner’s holiday fund.

Chairman Ned Quinn last night agreed that the incident has cast the Association in a bad light and left a sour taste amongst the champions, given the crowds who witnessed their achievements this year.

“I would agree with DJ Carey, it was disingenuous of Croke Park to package it as if they were giving nearly 60,000 euro,” the Kilkenny chairman said yesterday. “Credit to those who are responsible for the new Croke Park. In the early 90’s, before there was any talk of Celtic Tigers, they had the vision, the intelligence and the guts to go ahead and build it, and what’s more, to finish it. You can’t just dismiss that, and great credit is due to them, but we have to move on.

“What was the gate for the All-Ireland final? Take nearly 80,000 people at an average of 30 euro a head, that’s nearly two and a half million. How much did they give, 30,000 euro? With a panel of 30, another ten for selectors and officials, doubled for their partners, how far is that going to go for 80 people?

Mr Quinn said the Croke Park bosses should increase the holiday subsidy due to the increased revenues from the new stadium: “The sooner we do that the better, though I’m not advocating pay-for-play. It goes beyond holiday funds - the whole method of disbursing funds should be revised. We should have a new look at everything and the way in which income is distributed.”

Henry Shefflin was amongst those who ran in the fund-raiser and he is highly critical of the circumstances which forced him and his team-mates to undertake such a spectacle: “I don’t know how much the All-Ireland championship has generated for the GAA this year, but for them to come along in a local newspaper here and claim that they had contributed 60,000 when in fact half of that was from Guinness, there’s something definitely wrong somewhere.

“In 2000, after winning the All-Ireland, we sold team photos to raise funds, but you’re going back to the same people all the time. In 92, some of the lads were actually standing outside Nowlan Park after club games with buckets collecting money. Ten years down the road, nothing much has changed, you now have fellas running around dog-tracks, trying to raise a few bob to go on a holiday.”

Croke Park spokesman Danny Lynch defended the GAA’s policy yesterday. “It’s all coming out of the one pot no matter what way you look at it,’’ he commented. “What people should not overlook is that all monies that accrue to the GAA, whether it’s from sponsorship or gate receipts, goes back into the Association in some form or another - mainly games development, games promotion and subsidisation of hurleys and sliothars. If monies are deployed from one source to another target area, it means that one is getting less than what they would normally get.

“If you check with Guinness, you will find that until recently there was never money allocated out of the sponsorship for holiday funds. This was agreed by Central Council acting in consultation with Guinness and in agreement with them, that funds would be allocated in this manner. Otherwise the money would be used for other purposes, such as games development or games promotion.’’