GAELIC GAMES NEWS ROUND-UP: PÁDRAIC DUFFY, director general of the GAA, was compelled yesterday to clarify comments made last Tuesday about the threat the association faces with regard to clandestine payments to intercounty and club managers.

As reported in the news section of last Wednesday’s The Irish Times, Duffy said “the biggest, the single most difficult issue we face are under-the-counter payments” to football managers. He used the example of two “very well-known businessmen” paying €30,000 to “a well-known mercenary manager”.

The account included a reference to the county board asking, “If the 30p per mile driving expenses were okay? He said ‘Yes.’ Everyone knew but no one said anything,” said Duffy.

The initial comments took place at a lecture in Dublin by Prof Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh of NUI Galway entitled: The GAA at 125 – the Challenge of Change .

Yesterday, however, Duffy sought to address his comment that “Ulster counties are the biggest culprits”. Categorically stating the manager in question is not at present in charge of an intercounty team, Duffy stated: “In response to Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh’s lecture on the challenges facing the GAA – and in which he identified professionalism as one of the key challenges – there was a general discussion with the audience, among other issues, on the various aspects of the challenge posed by professionalism.

“In the course of that discussion I referred to efforts made by GAA presidents, including Seán McCague, to deal with the issue and to highlight the difficulties that Croke Park face in trying to address this problem, I repeated a story that I had been told some years ago by an official of a county board in Ulster.

“It is important to point out that the story quoted does not relate to any manager currently involved with an intercounty team.The point I was making was that “under-the-counter payments” are not made by county boards but by individuals – generally from the business community – who are prepared to invest in a manager in a bid for intercounty success.

“The comments attributed to me as regards Ulster being “the main culprits” were taken out of context and they were made specifically in reference to the situation at club level. The point I made is that clubs in Ulster are generally strong in arguing the case for the importance of volunteerism and our amateur status yet there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that would suggest many of them are paying managers’ expenses in excess of those allowed under our own rules. Some clubs don’t seem to appreciate that such payments are a huge threat to our volunteer ethos and amateur status.

“However, the problem of managers receiving payments in excess of that allowed is one for the association generally.”

The issue of amateur managers receiving unrecorded payments has been a direct threat to GAA amateurism for many years but the issue was dormant of late mainly because of the difficulty in proving such payments exist. There is no paper trail and the payments tend to come from individuals indirectly associated with the GAA. How the GAA intend the combat the problem remains unclear.

Also at the lecture, Duffy highlighted the threat from soccer in working-class areas, particularly Dublin, with regard to participation rates, noting Gaelic games had become a middle-class pursuit in the capital. He also expressed comfort with alcohol sponsorship despite his own pioneer status.

Meanwhile, the GAA have confirmed Dr Danny Mulvihill will chair the GAA’s medical, scientific and welfare committee for the next three years. Other members of the committee are Prof Niall Moyna, Dr Pat Duggan, Dr Pat O’Neill, Dr Philip Carolan, Dr Rod McLoughlin, Ronan Carolan, Dr Seán Moffatt, John Murphy, Dr Matt Conran, Feargal McGill, Cliff Beirne, John Conran (Wexford), Paul Kelly (Armagh) and Stephen Browne (secretary, Croke Park).