Weather and value driving increase in counties' warm weather training camps

Croke Park chiefs are less eager to stamp out the practice.

The Campus in Quinta do Lago, Portugal. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

The increasing costs of staging training camps in Ireland and increasingly poor weather are among the major reasons for the rise in number of county squads going abroad to prepare for championship.

As Cork’s footballers returned home on Sunday from their four-day warm weather training break in Portugal, the proliferation in panels heading to the Iberian Peninsula has been as much for monetary reasons as inclement conditions in Ireland.