Duffy rules out bailout for clubs in difficulty

GAA DIRECTOR GENERAL:THE GAA'S director general, Páraic Duffy, has admitted financial difficulty is now the "number-one concern for clubs" within the association but warned there won't be any bailout, even in the face of potential bankruptcy.

“There are degrees of concern,” said Duffy, “and I think you have to distinguish here. There are only a small number of clubs who are in serious financial trouble. Not generally through their own fault, (but) through infrastructure programmes that looked very good at the time and for various reasons have gone off.

“But there are an awful lot of clubs finding it tough going financially. If you have a debt of even €20,000 at the moment it’s very difficult to clear that. Fund raising is difficult. People haven’t got the money to spend. The cost of running a club doesn’t change, in terms of insurance, travel expenses and all of that. Clubs are finding it tougher and tougher to raise money. So the GAA is affected, like everybody else.”

Duffy will highlight the issue in his annual report, to be published ahead of congress in April. In the meantime, he added, the GAA is in contact with clubs experiencing the most severe financial difficulties, offering whatever assistance they can. But he couldn’t offer any guarantee no club would be allowed go out of business.

“We certainly wouldn’t envisage that happening,” he said, “but sometimes, in terms of how this plays out, we are not always in total control as an organisation. We will do our best for every club. But can we keep every club out of trouble? The answer is no. The clubs have got to find a way out themselves. We will do everything we can obviously to help out clubs, but can we financially bail all the clubs that have financial trouble? The answer is no. We wouldn’t have the resources to do that.”

Duffy was speaking at a Sigerson Cup event in UCD yesterday, ahead of their hosting of the finals, beginning on Thursday, and on the issue of the scheduling of the competition said that reverting to a pre-Christmas format was not realistic.

“Some of the colleges don’t restart until October every year and then with the different exam times there is a very narrow period in which they can play the competitions off. I think people in the GAA have got to accept these competitions are hugely important to the association.

“They make a huge contribution to the development of the games at third level, a lot of the players will go on to become key players for their clubs, their games are developed there, and a lot of our administrators come from third level. I think we should accept it is a difficulty and we should try and meet their concerns. But I don’t think we can change the schedule.”

This year’s Sigerson will see the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final played on three consecutive days, and while recognising the demands of that, Duffy said it was a “once-off” – to coincide with the 100th anniversary celebrations.

Finally, on the issue of goal-line technology – and specially the Hawk-Eye brand – Duffy confirmed a trial would take place before the end of the league, in Croke Park, but that cost might ultimately decide whether the technology would be adopted in 2012, especially given it would have to apply in all championship grounds.