Going pro would ruin GAA, insists Ward

CIAN WARD knows he will “get it in the neck” for this.

He knows that, no matter how he puts it, there will be a significant rump of people out there who will strip away the finer points and hold up his argument as another Trojan Horse assault on amateurism in the GAA.

It was Tuesday afternoon when he stuck his head above the parapet on Twitter as the publication of Páraic Duffy’s discussion document on payments to managers flushed a cacophony of opinions from the ether and onto the internet.

One of them came from former Laois footballer Colm Parkinson who moved the debate on to the possible recompense of players through a percentage of gate receipts and Ward was quick to pin his banner to the same mast.

“It was just something we had spoken about before,” said the Meath forward who added that the system could replace the current player grants offered by the government at the taxpayers’ expense, “but it is not going to happen.”

Nevertheless, as with the managers, he believes the debate is one worth having.

“The quality of the product dictates the gate receipts and it is the players who dictate the quality of the product.

“You go to the cinema and the actors are paid. I know this isn’t quite the same but the concept is.

“It could be a central fund that would be distributed to everybody so that players and teams that don’t make it to the last rounds where the crowds are biggest would still get something out of a collective purse.”

As for professionalism? Forget it.

“The money just isn’t there to pay players professionally. Maybe certain counties would be able to do it but most wouldn’t. Going professional would ruin it for me. Some counties wouldn’t be able to afford people and players would probably end up moving to other counties.”

So, an interesting idea but one that would create another Pandora’s Box were it adopted and the GAA is already wrestling with whether to close one of those with regards to the payment of managers or to open it up for all to see.

There is a body of opinion that paying managers for their services would create a domino affect, one which would inevitably lead to a groundswell among players for similar treatment.

Maybe not today or tomorrow but eventually. That is the doomsday scenario which everyone fears for an organisation built on a foundation of amateurism.

A GPA survey which claims 75% of their membership wouldn’t react in such a manner would appear to differ and Ward is among the 70% of inter-county players who would have no problem with playing for a full-time boss.

“I just think that it is happening anyway whether we like it or not. I would prefer it if it wasn’t happening and if no-one was getting paid as it is then I would say no way but it is so it might as well be out in the open.

“How would people react? How much would they be paid? Some players might have an issue with it but not me. I love to play for my county. We’re all just there to mind the jersey for the next generation and it wouldn’t change anything for me if the manager was paid. The one thing I would say is that you would want value for money but even that raises issues. Different people have different opinions about what value for money would be and only one team can win the All-Ireland every year.”

Another of the options put forward by Duffy would involve a rigorous crackdown on those contravening the amateur status but one wonders how under-the-table payments would be policed when former president Peter Quinn remarked that they couldn’t even find the table.

“In a perfect world the people who manage would all be from their own clubs and own counties but this isn’t an ideal world,” said Ward. “The time for living in a fantasy world is gone.”

On that we can all agree.