Amateur status report awaited

The report of the GAA's Amateur Status Review Committee will be presented to Saturday's Central Council meeting in Croke Park. The meeting, however, will be held in camera and the recommendations of the report are unlikely to be revealed in full.

The Review Committee was formed in secret last October at the request of GAA president Sean McCague to re-examine certain areas of the Amateur Status Report. Although the full make-up of the committee has been kept from the public arena, it is known that they held their final meeting on Tuesday night and have agreed several recommendations aimed at improving player welfare while keeping within the amateur code.

Under McCague's instructions, details of the recommendations have also been kept private. Jarlath Burns, the current chairman of the GAA's Players Committee, is known to be on the committee but he was not in a position yesterday to outline any of the matters decided on Tuesday night.

"I've been specifically told to say nothing on this," he said, "and so right now I can't expand on any of the recommendations. Hopefully though they will come out after the weekend."

The committee is also known to have included former Dublin manager Kevin Heffernan, as well as people from outside the association. Part of their briefing was to advise on room for manoeuvre within the current Amateur Status report, which was presented in 1997 under the chairmanship of Peter Quinn. Under the report, players are allowed to benefit from media work and product endorsement, but they are not allowed payments for missed work, or loss of over-time payments.

McCague's decision to establish the Review Committee coincided with last year's meetings with the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), who remain the unofficial players' body. The GPA, however, had previously established their own proposal for payment of €127 per week to players as compensation for time and money lost during inter-county activity.

It is anticipated that the area of compensation will feature prominently in the committee's recommendations. Part of the problem is that some counties are understood to offer players some sort of compensation for time lost at work, while others stick firmly to the rules.

It has already been revealed that the committee is likely to recommend an increase in the players' mileage rate, which currently stands at 38 cent-a-mile, to 60 cent-a-mile.

A related area that may be addressed is a tax break, in conjunction with the Government, from PRSI on player endorsements or an exception from VAT on GAA gear. The GPA have already announced their intention to pursue tax breaks for inter-county players.

It is likely that any new definition of amateurism would, in the current climate, be carefully considered and largely welcomed by Central Council. The report of the Review Committee has been noted on many occasions to be highly anticipated, including during the Cork players' strike of last December when county secretary Frank Murphy referred to it as likely to address many of the players' demands at the time.

But just how far the changes will go is still open to question. Burns has previously stated that the current amateur status cannot be abandoned, and instead will require a long period of change. He has also noted in the past the need to be realistic in what you can actually achieve in a short space of time.