GPA: Players struggling to survive

THE chief executive of the Gaelic Players Association has revealed some of his members are “genuinely struggling to put food on the table” due to the economic downturn.

The number of inter-county footballers and hurlers seeking financial assistance through the GPA’s benevolent fund continues to escalate but Farrell is convinced that the problem may be worse than the figures suggest.

In the 12 months or so since the fund’s establishment, the players’ body has been providing its members with sums of up to €3,000 — and sometimes more, in extreme cases — in order to alleviate financial pressures.

But he admitted some areas have been hit harder than others.

Speaking in Belfast yesterday, Farrell said inter-county players from the Six Counties were among those least hit while others including Wicklow, Donegal, Louth and Monaghan were proving to be particular black spots.

“Some of them are genuinely struggling to put food on the table,” Farrell claimed.

“I’m thinking specifically of a player at the moment who’s recently had a child and is out of work. The sense of pride takes over as well and you don’t want to be seen to be taking handouts, so there’s that sensitivity around it as well.

“What we’re trying to assess at the minute is are there more of these cases?

“I’m convinced that there are, they’re just not coming forward.

“This is very much a learning curve for us.

“The word is out there that the GPA is willing to assist them (past players) as well though they also come in through the business mentoring programme or the scholarship programme, lads who are going back to college or going now for the first time.”

Such support structures were one of the core principles underlining the five-year agreement reached between the GPA and GAA late last year and which has guaranteed the former a minimum income of €8.75m over that term.

Said Farrell: “Behind the PR and the facts and the figures and the stats around the money, there are real live stories and real impact on the ground for players which is the manifestation of this five-year agreement. What we’re able to give fellas is the real story.

“An example would be players who are in mortgage arrears. We’re able to intervene there and put them in touch with a financial advisor to do a bit of budgeting and planning for them. If there’s a requirement for benevolent assistance, it just gets fellas back on their feet so there’s a support there that wouldn’t have been there a few years ago.”

There was a sliver of better news in the fact that the general rate of unemployment among inter-county players has decreased from a high of 15% late last year to in and around 14% as things stand.

With 2,200 members in the GPA, that translates into roughly 20 fewer players drawing on the dole but those figures are somewhat masked by the reality that many have returned to third-level education.

The GPA yesterday announced the distribution of 450 scholarships among inter-county players for the current academic year as part of their player development programme.

It is by some distance the most comprehensive educational support programme now in existence in Irish sport and one in which the GPA will provide financial assistance to student players from every squad competing at inter-county level.

The support offered by the GPA is not just financial and Farrell revealed that their member of staff responsible for the organisation’s career services has been inundated with correspondence while at the same time visiting squads and setting up appointments.

“We’re going to work hard in the next months to work on a specific strategy to try and get fellas back into employment,” said Farrell.

“In Waterford and Kildare, we set up pilot projects to work in conjunction with them because you need people on the ground who can open a few doors in the business community. It was a template we might be able to roll out in some of these black spots. It’s a difficult marketplace. Hopefully the GAA will row in behind it and do what they can to keep players at home.”

Meanwhile, the body has invested up to €180,000 in a mobile cardiac screening programme for inter-county players which will be rolled out around the country in the next fortnight, having completed a successful pilot scheme.

“It follows the advances made in screening since Cormac McAnallan,” explained Farrell. “Every player will go through a questionnaire, a physical examination with the team doctor and an ECG and any abnormalities will then be referred on to a specific sports cardiologist, Dr Joe Galvin.”