Cooney dismisses claims of GAA-GPA damage
Eleven players remain unavailable to manager John O’Neill after they withdrew their services last month.
The Fermanagh County Board then elected to reject recommendations made by the GAA and GPA to resolve the row. But Cooney denied it was a blow to the GAA and GPA’s recently-inked deal.
“No. Absolutely not,” said Cooney, who will speak about the matter in his Congress address on Saturday.
“There are a lot of things happening that wouldn’t even come to the attention of the media. We deal with others, through proposals, and the GPA on an ongoing basis.
“It is just that the Fermanagh one got a bit more publicity than any other. A lot of things happened behind the scenes. Fermanagh had the right to do what they believe was right.”
Cooney revealed the GAA are set to make a ticket package for the league finals in Croke Park on Saturday and Sunday week.
“We have our communications people, tickets people and financial people looking at a package for the weekend that will attract people if they come on Saturday and stay around for Sunday. We will be looking at those over the next couple of days and probably announce something soon on ticket prices.”
Cooney also said no decision had been made on the future sponsorship and structure of the All Stars scheme but added that “we’ll hopefully have something to announce over the next period of time”.
