Mayo to disband supporters clubs as cash troubles hit home

MAYO GAA chiefs are set to disband supporters clubs at home and abroad as part of the new financial plan they presented to a Croke Park committee last Thursday, in an effort to alleviate the pressure on the cash-strapped county.

Club Mayo in Mayo, Dublin and London will all be discontinued as part of the plan with the newly-established Cáirde Mhaigheo instead expected to organise fundraising in a centralised manner.

The meeting was the first Mayo board officials have had with Croke Park chiefs, since their November meeting when the Mayo officers were requested to give clubs a full indication of the scale of debt surrounding MacHale Park in Castlebar. That figure was revealed to be €11.6m, comprised of capital loans to Ulster Bank and Croke Park, and a figure of more than €1.6m outstanding to contractors for the €18m redevelopment at the Castlebar venue. The development is, as yet, unfinished.