Ó Fearghail: TV deal is ‘hugely positive’ step
Speaking at the launch of Dublin club Ballyboden St Enda’s’ new sponsorship deal with H&K International, he also rejected any notions about transparency issues over where and how money is spent.
“The media deal, I don’t see it as a Sky deal, the media deal that has recently been announced is hugely positive. We give back 80% of everything to our clubs and counties,” he said.
“We are the most audited sports organisation that I am aware of. I would say that without fear of challenge. We are the most audited and we do it publicly and independent auditors verify where our finances go. Our finances are filtered back into developments that you see here in Ballyboden.
“That fantastic hurling wall and the full-size 3G pitch, that in the main came from this community and there is no question about that, but it was also assisted by GAA money from central level that is filtering back in, and we have to keep doing more and more of that. It’s one of the reasons why the GAA is strong. We have great facilities right around the country and without good facilities you won’t attract young people, so we have to be able to source monies to be able to reinvest.”
The Cavan man has also been gauging the response to the deal of Irish GAA communities abroad, and he insists the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’ve just come back from a trip to New York and I met so many people out there who are delighted that now on digital media they are able to watch games in a place of their own choosing instead of tearing across at 7am to a bar. I know that in Britain, I’ve been over to London, it’s incredible over there the reaction to it.”
Ó Fearghail, who assumes the presidency next year, says the GAA has to be shown to be progressive after years of stagnation.
“When I was an officer of the Ulster Council, it used to be the opposite. We were always told that we were regressive and dinosaurs. I was accused of being a dinosaur, both publicly and privately, on many occasions.
“It’s nice that people would say we are progressive. We are so ingrained in Ireland, part of the fabric of Ireland, urban clubs like this one or rural clubs like where I come from. They reflect the Ireland that we live in. I think the GAA has, by and large, done that. People would say that for 80 years, the GAA didn’t develop, but neither did the country. Nothing changed.
“Anyone who has ever read Irish history will know that our country never changed from the 1920s to the 1960s, so the GAA reflected that.
“Now that Ireland has changed, the GAA has also changed.”
