Ethics committee need 'time and space' to review Allianz sponsorship - Jarlath Burns

GAA chief Ryan explains Gavin didn't present FRC rules to ensure focus was on football.

President of the GAA Jarlath Burns. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher.

The GAA’s ethics and integrity commission must be given “time and space” to make a recommendation on Allianz’s future as sponsors of the National Leagues, says GAA president Jarlath Burns.

The GAA are awaiting their conclusion on the organisation’s longest standing backers’s links with funding Israel’s war in Gaza.

Hundreds of former and current inter-county players have called for the GAA to end the partnership in the wake of UN commission of inquiry's findings that Israel have committed genocide in Palestine.

At the GAA’s Central Council last month, it was agreed to refer the matter to the organisation’s ethic and integrity body, which was formed earlier this year.

“They are doing quite a lot of research into it,” Burns said on Saturday. “We have to understand the concept of critical theory, that we don't just take everything at face value.

“At that meeting where we decided to refer it to the ethics and integrity commission, we also made our second sizeable financial donation to Gaza and to the stricken people there.

“We've also, for the first time ever, the GAA has never before in our history issued a statement on a geopolitical issue outside of Ireland. We broke that when we made the statement in Gaza last year.

“And we have met Gaels for Gaza, and we are quite happy to be associated with them, but I can't really comment on that until the ethics and integrity commission does its work, and we're going to give them time and space to do that.”

Insisting it will be GAA authorities who decide whether or not to heed the committee’s recommendation, director general Tom Ryan declined to confirm the identity of those on the body.

“They're voluntary people that are giving up their time.” Addressing some of the negative reaction to the GAA hosting a NFL game in Croke Park last Sunday, Burns said the organisation’s decision was a considered one.

“I do know that there was somebody [US journalist David Zirin] who came over and he had disparaging marks to make about the NFL, the same way as that if we go up north there are people who make very disparaging marks about the GAA if you choose to look at the GAA through a particular lens. We chose to look at it through a different lens.”

Burns spoke of the Pittsburgh Steelers’s owners, the Rooney family, and their long-standing association with Ireland as well as their philanthropy for Irish causes. He also hailed the stadium and city experience around the game.

“I saw more people of colour in this stadium than I've ever seen it, on the field and off the field at that match. In fact, it had the words ‘end racism’ written on the pitch the first time ever.

“So we have a really good relationship, they were proud to be in Croke Park, they know that when they play in Croke Park it's not like playing in any other stadium in the world, and they accepted that and they understood that, that's why they were so honoured to play here.

“And they are very keen to come back, and for us being a responsible party in Irish society, we also have our part to play in trying to improve society in Ireland, and one of the things that we have noticed is there has been a 12% uplift in takings in Dublin over that weekend.”

Burns hailed the work of the Football Review Committee (FRC) whose 60 motions, which were taken in 16 votes, were all supported by delegates at Saturday’s Special Congress in Croke Park.

Asked what the GAA can do to ensure radical change isn’t required again, Burns remarked: "All sports from time to time have to change, have to evolve and we would hope that we have left the game in good stead for maybe the next 20 years.

"They have left certain recommendations behind with us and we are going to now start looking at those recommendations but we're just going to take a breath. We've achieved an awful lot. The FRC have achieved an incredible amount. We're very proud of what they've achieved.”

The 19 other recommendations such as keeping an open mind about a four-point goal and a curb on the hand-pass will be considered by the standing playing rules committee led by Liam Keane.

Ryan also explained why FRC chairman Jim Gavin did not present the motions nor took any part in explaining them. The presidential candidate was in Croke Park and joined his committee colleagues after the vote.

“It's just something to be mindful of. The big issue and the big business today is football and that's what we're all charged with, football and Gaelic games. So it was just a question of making sure that everybody respected that football had to take precedence.

“Jim's in a very high profile position at the moment, as you know. He has to be mindful of himself so there was never any real contention. I know it was a matter of quite an amount of public speculation about what form it was going to take. I hope people felt that it passed off okay. I hope the lads in the committee felt that it passed off ok. I hope that Jim himself felt that it passed off okay.

“We just wanted to do things in an orderly and a respectful way that was cognisant of all of the outside eyes on us and the most important thing, which we did, was to get the business of the day done.”

One plank of Burns’s presidency was the football rules and now attention will turn to the amateur status proposals at Congress in February. Burns told delegates he does not expect an easy passage for them, admitting some will be “radical”.

He admitted to them: “I just fear that this part of my presidency will not succeed, to be honest with you. There are a lot of varying views about what the amateur status means to players and to counties and to everybody else.

“Essentially, what we are trying to achieve is that it is going to be easier for our county players to play the game and live their lives, and it is going to be easier for our counties to pay for playing the game at the highest level.

“That is the two biggest things that our amateur status committee are trying to achieve. I sort of get the feeling that when we go around the country, everybody wants change but not too many people want to change.

"If we are going to really deal with this in the way that we have to deal with it, we are going to have to reflect seriously on what it means to be an amateur athlete playing at the highest level in 2026.”