Prenty: Players will go same road as managers

One of the country’s leading full-time GAA officials has warned that players will be expected to be paid if payments to managers are sanctioned.

Connacht Council secretary John Prenty says players are struggling with the demands being placed on them at top flight level and that it is only a matter of time before ‘pay for play’ is introduced if managers are paid.

Prenty reiterates that the GAA have three options — continue with the current position and just ignore the situation; implement fully the existing rules on amateur status; or introduce a system of regulated payments to senior inter-county managers. Prenty, who makes his comments in a document which will go before the AGM of the Connacht Council next week, said the problem would not exist if current rules were implemented. He questions that even if a system is introduced to pay managers, he fears that some might not adhere to it in any event.

“Can we be confident that it will be adhered to or will we again have the situation whereby clubs and counties seek to gain a dubious competitive edge by reverting back to the current situation of ignoring the rules?

“At present training regimes are driving players to the limit of their endurance. For how long more can they stand the demands being made of them by team managers? “If we introduce regulated payments to managers I am sure that the demands of pay for play will follow, if not immediately surely in the near future.

“We are in for interesting times,” he notes in address which will be delivered to the Connacht Council annual general meeting on Thursday night.