'Not too late' for club-first season as GAA records €34m deficit for 2020

The GAA’s director of finance Ger Mulryan expects it will be the summer of 2022, at the earliest, before GAA income returns to pre-pandemic levels

With the final round of the National League and the entire All-Ireland Championship having taken place behind closed doors, gate receipts plummeted from €36.1m in 2019 to just €3.6m last year. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The GAA’s director of finance, Ger Mulryan, has said “it is not too late” to relocate this year’s All-Ireland Championship to the backend of 2021 and allow club activity to proceed first.

In his financial report for 2020, which shows the GAA incurred a deficit of €34m last year, Mulryan said this year's fixture calendar must strike a balance between providing games for all our club players and the financial benefits the inter-county game delivers.