Cooney stands firm
GAA PRESIDENTIAL candidate Christy Cooney is strongly opposed to opening up Croke Park to other sports - and believes that changing Rule 42 is the sole preserve of Congress.
Chairman of the Youghal club and an executive in FÁS, he is fervent in his belief that allowing rugby and soccer into Croke Park would seriously dilute the uniqueness of the GAA brand. Furthermore, he argues that it would increase pressure to pay players and holds firmly to the view that it would not be possible to ‘ring fence’ Croke Park.
While Munster Chairman Sean Fogarty feels it would be a ‘PR disaster’ for Irish supporters to go to Britain for ‘home’ internationals, Cooney argues that they could not be held responsible for this. Ironically, because he doesn’t have a vote, he will play no role in the debate on next month’s Congress motions.
He has a serious concern about the impact of inter-county competitions on club activity, worries about the development of the Association in Dublin and the other large urban areas, and remains adamant that a move to professionalism would be disastrous. If the Association is to grow stronger it has to have a vision which is planned and continually evaluated - something ‘they haven’t been good at’ in the past.
Pointing out that he has never been in favour of Central Council deciding on Rule 42, he insists it’s a matter for Congress. “It would be a major decision to change policy, a watershed for the Association. I am not saying that Central Council aren’t in a position to make that decision, but that the power should be with Congress,” he said. His philosophy is that the Croke Park issue is ‘about’ the GAA, its brand, the target population it needs to control and maintain, about the Association moving forward independently.
“It’s all our responsibility to enhance our Association and to not risk the dilution of our greatest marketing tool - Croke Park. If Congress makes a decision to open Croke Park to other sports, would we see a list of events there of two All-Ireland finals, three soccer games and six rugby games? What would that say about Croke Park? Would it be signalled as a GAA stadium any more, or would it be perceived as the National Stadium?
“What would it do to our target population in Dublin, where we have major difficulties. What would it also do to a community where a team has its problem with their pitch from another sport and the pressure is on that local community to play in the GAA field ... and we say we can’t do it, but Croke Park can be opened. It would split us up the middle.”
On the claim it would be unpatriotic not to open up Croke Park while Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped, Cooney says that the GAA ‘is not responsible’ for the management of rugby and soccer. In this context, he pointed to the practice of large numbers of Irish people going across to England every week-end to attend soccer games. When the GAA embarked on the redevelopment of Croke Park they had the option of using one of a number of other venues if required. Now they can boast of facilities to the tune of e3bn.
“The management of other sports is not our problem. My responsibility, as a chairman of my club and as a former chairman of Cork and Munster, is to protect and enhance our market share, our brand image, our rights. That’s what I want to do and achieve. It’s not that I am anti-sport, it’s not that I have any ill-feelings to any sporting organisation, quite the contrary.
“But, I believe the day we get rid of the image of a young hurler or footballer playing in Croke Park in an All-Ireland final and get rid of the image of Croke Park being the quality brand that the GAA is, we will have a problem as an Association.”
In the past year over 28 events (most of them double fixtures) were held in Croke Park - in his view, considerably more than the number of major games played in Lansdowne Road, or possibly any major soccer stadium in Britain. It’s a myth to say their stadium is under-utilised. The debt is well under control and he questions the financial benefit of renting out Croke Park.
“I don’t know, but rumour has it that the IRFU receives something like €200,000 per game from the FAI. If that is so, what would that do for our 20,000 clubs? Even if we got a €1 million or €1.5million (per match), would that make a serious impact on what we are trying to do?” he asked.
However, if he is elected and Rule 42 is changed, Cooney says it wouldn’t be a problem for him. All Presidents have traditionally dealt with the policy of the Association ‘with integrity,’ whether or not they agreed with it, and that would never change. “If the Association decides it is going to give the power to Central Council and Central Council decide they would open Croke Park for specific reasons, I would ensure that policy is adhered to,” he said.
In relation to the GAA’s amateur code, he says that the issue is not about being able to afford to pay players, more what the Association ‘was about.’ Making their games professional would destroy its ethos.
“We wouldn’t have a club scene as strong as we have now. We would end up with the counties contracting players, a situation of whether people would be playing for the ideals of the Association or for themselves. At the end of the day, our games are about team games, about the pride of the community, the pride of the parish, the pride of the county.
“I don’t know if players want to be paid. I believe the majority of them want to be catered for well and player welfare is an important issue. I don’t believe the Association could afford to pay ‘a weekly allowance’ and I wouldn’t be in favour of going down that road. I also believe that a situation where we had professional games in our stadium would cause pressure for us to pay them.”
He says that he’s unsure what the GPA stands for at the present time. It was suggested that they were ‘more commercially orientated,’ but this was the responsibility of the Association.
“People say that the GPA have got players what they have now, but a lot of the provisions put in place were expanded on by Jarlath Burns and his Players Committee. The GPA probably woke us up a bit but we were on that road already.”
Cooney favours rules experimentation, but feels that it should have been carried out last year. Further questioning the process, he says he didn’t see the need for any change in hurling. “The sin bin and yellow card certainly caused some confusion. I’m not sure why it was changed in mid stream.”
He isn’t altogether convinced about the value of the clean pick-up in football - saying that it’s introducing ‘more and more handball’ into the game. It may reduce fouling, but ideally players should be limited to one toe-to-hand or one hand pass. “We’re talking about football, not handball. There is an over-emphasis on hand-passing. We need to teach our kids how to kick the ball properly,” he added.
“Hurling and football are games for men, where people strive to succeed and use their physical strength and intelligence to try to achieve it. We have to find some way of managing the off-the-ball situation, particularly for backs. Our referees get a lot of criticism, but we have made significant progress over the last five or six years in particular.”
Tackling the ongoing promotion and development of volunteerism is a big issue, requiring structures to be put in place to attract more people to get involved in clubs. Another priority is the whole area of fixtures, relative to the imbalance between club and county - and pressures on inter-county players.
“We start off in January with the subsidiary competitions, the leagues, then straight into the championships and we don’t finish until September/October. Are we saying that October to December is prime time for our club championships? Certainly not. The Uachtarán has set up a committee to look at that and I await with interest their findings.”
Recognising that discipline is another major issue, he favours a division of the GAC responsibilities and the establishment of an arbitration process. “What Sean Kelly is trying to do is good. We need to get it right. We can’t have a repeat of some of the situations we had over the last two years.
“There is a recognition that maybe sometimes we can be over-the-top with suspensions, but players must be prepared to accept their punishment and not feel they can get a decision changed - either within the Association or by resorting to the courts.”
He regrets the criticism levelled at the former Presidents in relation to the vetting of Rule 42 motions. Nevertheless, he accepts there is a need for people to be more educated on the rules.
“Irrespective of their views, nobody should question their integrity with regard to deciding whether a motion is in order or not. If they were that single-minded - as some people might have perceived they were - the motions wouldn’t have got through on the day.”
Native of Youghal, Co. Cork.
Aged 52.
Assistant Director-General FÁS.
Married, with a son and daughter.
Elected Cork Vice-Chairman 1991, Chairman 1994, Munster Vice-Chairman 1998, Chairman 2001.
Member of VHI Board.
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