Players may strike as GPA and GAA rift widens

THE festering conflict between the GAA and GPA over proposals from the players’ body to introduce Government grants for inter-county players deepened yesterday.

Both released prickly statements defending increasingly polarised stances yesterday with the threat of a players strike moving a step closer after the GPA’s decision to call an EGM for April 1 over what it regards as the GAA’s ‘non-co-operation’.

The GPA also referred to disgruntlement with the GAA over other player welfare issues, but it is was Croke Park’s failure to send a representative to a meeting between the players’ body and Sports Minister John O’Donoghue last week that is chiefly responsible for bringing the matter to a head.