GAA for talks with Guinness

GAA chiefs will meet with Guinness later this year to discuss the future sponsorship of the All-Ireland Hurling Championships.

Amid growing criticism of the sponsorship from some quarters, GAA president Seán Kelly said yesterday that future sponsorship strategy would be guided by government policy to some degree, but there was no question of the GAA walking away from Guinness's Championship sponsorship before the current agreement comes to an end next year. While the Association was "unfairly" singled out at times in the media because of their involvement with Guinness, Mr Kelly said this reflected their strength.

"We are probably seen as the premier sporting organisation and anything we do obviously gets more publicity than anything else. It also reflects the fact that because we do certain things they are taken up and when other organisations accept sponsorship, they are ignored.

"Last weekend, you had the Heineken Cup semi-finals, but I didn't hear anybody complaining about that sponsorship. But they will complain about Guinness." He agreed that if the Government were to put a ban on such sponsorships, every organisation would have to fall in line. "What I say that is that it would be unfair to isolate the GAA, not to take everybody else on board as well. We'd all have to be painted with the same brush at the end of the day and obviously, we'd all have to abide with any legislation that might be passed. That's a matter for the Government and not for us."

GAA director-general Liam Mulvihill explained that the autumn meeting between the Association and Guinness was standard practice to review sponsorship agreements a year in advance of contracts expiring.

Mr Kelly revealed that both sides have agreed to come together on a formal basis to set up a task force and examine what could be done to address the problem of alcohol abuse. In the meantime, they will be keeping their side of the bargain.

"We don't go pulling out in the middle of something unless we have very strong reasons to do so and it would be putting the wrong emphasis on the sponsorship if we were to pull out," Mr Kelly said. "You'd be actually saying that this is the cause of the abuse in the country, and it's not. It has been there long before the Guinness sponsorship ever started. Former president Mick Loftus has been talking about it for the past ten or fifteen years. The problem may have got worse, but it's not because of the sponsorship but because of the society we are living in."

Clive Brownlee, assistant managing director of Diageo Ireland (Guinness' parent group) said that while they understood the anxiety to get a definitive position on the future of their partnership with the GAA, much of the speculation was more than a little premature. "We are looking forward to this season and as we have said on more than one occasion we will be sitting down in the autumn with the GAA to discuss the future. We review all of our sponsorships on a continuous basis and the hurling sponsorship is no different. While I can fully understand the interest and the concern in relation to a drinks company being involved in sports sponsorship, I think that much of what is said and written tries to simplify what is an extremely complex issue," he added. "To single out Guinness and the hurling championship is, I think, somewhat disingenuous on many levels. However, Guinness and the GAA are responsible organisations and it makes absolutely no sense for either party to promote drinking to excess."

Mr Kelly said that through intelligent and smart marketing by Guinness, hurling had reached new audiences and given people a wonderful appreciation of the quality the game. Questioned later, he said that the vast majority of GAA people respond positively towards the sponsorship.

Outlining the GAA's approach, Liam Mulvihill agrees that underage drinking and the whole question of alcohol abuse is a major national problem and "they would not claim otherwise." "It's an issue that is going to have to be faced up to by all people on this island and we will play our part in that, in terms of whatever is decided by the powers-that-be. But certainly, we would say that the Guinness sponsorship, in terms of the restraints that have been placed both in terms of the advertising of it and not involving any underage competitions, has been done with great care and with regard to the general principles that we set down at the outset.

"Above all, it has done an awful lot for the games of hurling."