Quinn hits out at grants for players

FORMER GAA president Peter Quinn has voiced his opposition to the proposal to award grants to inter-county players, claiming they are well-taken care of already.

Quinn, who played a handful of games for Fermanagh, said that his one regret was that he didn’t get to turn out more for his native county and added that he would have “paid to get playing for the county team instead of asking to be paid for it”.

While pointing out that he did not know the ins and outs on the issue, he made it clear that he was against the principal that players should receive financial recompense.

“I don’t believe that the players should be paid for the very simple reason that players should not be paid, they should be very well looked after. In the past they weren’t and that was part of the (2002 Strategic Review Committee) report and it was part of the previous report that I chaired in relation to amateur status.

“Though I didn’t feel it when I was playing myself, when my family started playing, I began to realise that players weren’t as well looked after as they might have been. That’s changed and players are being looked after well.”

Quinn was chairman of the wide-ranging SRC report five years ago, 85% of which he reckons has been adopted but it is the last 15% which he believes contains the issues most critical to the association.

Clubs are still in danger in major urban areas, he believes, while club players are badly in need of a Masters Fixtures list akin to the inter-county version unveiled for 2008 at Croke Park yesterday.

“Guys should know in the next six weeks or so what Saturdays, Sundays or Wednesdays they’ll be playing in 2008. Probably the draws won’t be made in some counties though, until March or April, that’s ridiculous.

“I believe there should be a fixtures book produced in January of every year. It should be adhered to. The idea of a masters fixture programme which has been launched today, at county level is a great idea but we need that now to devolve to club level.”

The Director General-elect Paraic Duffy is known to view the club versus county debate as being of critical importance to the GAA and Quinn feels the Monaghan man is well capable of steering the body through any choppy waters to come.

“There are some skills which I think he could use if he had them, like a background in management but Paraic is very well organised. He listens and I think that’s very important. I see him as a very safe pair of hands.

“I’d like to think he’ll lead a degree of change and that he’ll lead some changes in our structures. Hopefully, he’ll act as the catalyst for an increase in our market share in areas where we are losing our market share.”