GAA could move on manager payouts

GAA chiefs may attempt to control payments to club and county managers within the Association’s rules if they cannot eradicate the practice outright.

Director-General Páraic Duffy’s remarks are the first indication from the GAA’s top brass that it may be impossible to police and punish undeclared payments to coaches and managers and that a more flexible approach may be required.

Asked if he would prefer to root out the current payments, which go against the Association’s amateur status, or legalise them, Duffy responded that either would be better than the current situation.

“Root it out, I suppose, would be the ideal but life is not like that and it may be a question of some manner of controlling it, that at least it’s within the rules of the Association,” he told RTÉ.

The irony is that Tipperary have been quizzed by Croke Park about the decision to appoint their current senior football manager John Evans as the county’s Director of Football.

Though such a dual mandate would appear to be an ideal solution to the vexed question of whether or not to employ managers on a full-time basis, it is currently said to be in contravention of GAA rules.

Duffy’s words suggest a softening in the party line.

“There’s a realisation of the pressures on time and so on of managers,” he said earlier in Croke Park.

“They’re huge. We’ll look at it in a calm way and see can we understand that there is huge pressure and everything else on managers.

“But, at the same time, we are an amateur organisation. No matter what you say it’s important to remember that this is still an amateur organisation, a community-based, volunteer organisation. That is still what the GAA is about.”

Duffy had been speaking at the launch of his latest Annual Report and he confirmed that it is the association’s intention to establish a committee to deal with the matter and launch a report later in the year.

A similar course of action was undertaken by former president Sean McCague a decade ago and that, infamously, got nowhere closer to identifying either culprits or answers to the problem.

“There is more than enough anecdotal evidence to allow us to conclude that, while many managers and coaches may give generously of their time, some are accepting payment in excess of what is permitted under rule,” Duffy said.

Duffy has even admitted he has personally visited some clubs which he believes were breaking the rules on amateur status but added that the matter has become something of a vicious circle.

“We have had broad consultation with our members and they’ve made it very clear they see amateur status as a key element of what the GAA is about.

“So it is a core value because our members want it to be a core value.

“I think many clubs feel that they have no choice because everyone else is doing it. I think a lot of the clubs are actually anxious to break that cycle. I think there is a desire to do that.”

A recent survey suggested that up to a quarter of coaches were being paid for their services and Duffy admitted sums of €30-40,000 per year were being “bandied around” for some inter-county coaches.

Meanwhile, Duffy has also sounded warnings that the GAA’s top brass will no longer put up with the continued invasions of supporters onto the field of play after games, particularly at Croke Park.

Plans to host trophy presentations from the pitch after last year’s All-Ireland finals had to be abandoned because of mass spectator incursions but Duffy and president Christy Cooney are adamant these will be addressed again. “If it takes law changes and arrests, then that is what it will take,” said Cooney, when reminded that such measures were now commonplace in other sports and other countries.