D-G wants say in selecting match venues

GAA director general Páraic Duffy has bemoaned the fact that neither he nor the GAA president have any say in the venue selection for national games.

Duffy was referring to a number of fixtures last year which he believes were let down by the venues in which they were staged. He didn’t specify any games in particular but the decision to bring Cork and Kerry’s league semi-finals to Croke Park last April was criticised in the counties. The double-header brought a paltry 11,342 crowd to GAA HQ.

“It was disappointing to observe that a number of high-profile games in 2012 were fixed for venues that met none of the criteria for achieving maximum attendances,” wrote Duffy in his report.