Duffy admits Dublin may not be alone in facing cuts

GAA director general Páraic Duffy has revealed Dublin will not be the only county hit with a reduction in central funding.

The Irish Examiner reported last week the GAA’s national financial management committee are planning to reduce the funding made available to the Dublin County Board for coaching in the capital, a move strongly criticised by Dublin chairman Andy Kettle and football boss Jim Gavin.

Kettle claimed reallocating Dublin’s funding to the so-called weaker counties amounted to “robbing Peter to pay Paul”. Duffy is adamant Dublin are not being targeted by top brass, admitting other counties may also see a reduction in their coaching allocations.

“I wouldn’t say we are looking at Dublin in particular. We are looking at how we distribute our resources. That may impact on Dublin but it also may impact on other counties,” revealed Duffy.

“I made a point in my annual report to Congress last year and I wasn’t speaking specifically about Dublin, but I made the point there are huge inequities in the abilities of certain counties to raise and generate funds. At the other end of the spectrum you have small counties like Longford, Leitrim and Fermanagh where it is very difficult for them to generate the same level of funding and support their teams in the same competitions.

“I think it is necessary we look at how we distribute our income. I suppose Dublin feel they are in the firing line because they are the best resourced county in terms of funding.

“Once you start trying to redistribute that is going to cause tensions. We need to look at distributing resources a bit more equitably.”

Speaking on Today FM yesterday, Duffy said the GAA will consider staging future All-Ireland semi-final replays outside Croke Park, providing they don’t involve Dublin.

“All our semi-finals should be played in Croke Park but based on the experience of Limerick there’s a strong argument for saying that replays that don’t involve Dublin should be played outside. You would get a sense this week that we were asking people to go to Siberia or Outer Mongolia or some place. Limerick is a great stadium that doesn’t get many big games. They staged the game really well.

“The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. I’ve rarely experienced it at a football game, never in Croke Park.”

Duffy ruled out the possibility of two referees across the board in Gaelic football, admitting it wouldn’t be viable with a concerning shortage of match officials at the moment.

On the subject of the black card, Duffy acknowledged referees have made some mistakes but, in general said it has been working well, especially with the eradication of the deliberate body-check from the game and said referees’ administering of it will improve.