GAA plan fairer ticket allocation

GAA LEADERS are confident that the adoption of new membership procedures at the weekend’s Special Congress will lead to a fairer allocation of tickets for All-Ireland finals.

The protocol will eliminate the registration of paper clubs and thus benefit bona fide members nationwide.

Director-General Liam Mulvihill said yesterday that once the GAA establishes the "true" membership of the Association, the allocation system will be more accurate and fairer.

"It will be very easy to do this from now on, by linking it directly to the club membership rather than linking it to the number of clubs that are registered in a particular county.

"We all know the way paper clubs were put in separate hurling and football clubs, in some cases which were not genuinely separate clubs, and minor clubs. That has now been cut out," Mulvihill said.

"We will be able to know how clubs compare in terms of the amount of registered members that they have. That will be taken into consideration in terms of the number of tickets that are given, both on the county level and on individual club levels.

"And, knowing the actual membership will give us a fairer way of administering many aspects of the Association as we go forward."

Meanwhile, in relation to the on-going debate on opening up Croke Park to other sports, it was pointed out yesterday that the change in the rule enabling the Motions Committee to have motions amended in advance of annual Congress should be seen as doing just that and nothing more.

A senior GAA source suggested it was naive to think that a change in policy governing the use of Croke Park was inevitable merely because the submission of motions on Rule 42 (and all other issues) was now being made easier or less difficult.