GAA confident deal with GPA will get backing

CENTRAL COUNCIL MEETING IN CROKE PARK:THE GAA remain confident its agreement with the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) will get the full backing of Saturday's Central Council meeting in Croke Park, despite the emergence of some stern opposition, particularly from the northern counties.

Tyrone and Donegal have come out in opposition of the agreement. Saturday is about endorsing an interim agreement for the coming year, and also drawing up a proposal whereby the agreement could be set in rule at Congress next April, and although the opposition is unlikely to halt the process at this stage, it has raised some deeper issues about where the GAA is going in the long term.

Tyrone discussed the GPA agreement at a county board meeting in Carrickmore on Tuesday night, where a delegate from each club was invited to attend, and in the end they decided to oppose any steps that would result in such agreement. “The view was that we would not support the Central Council in drawing up a motion to go to Congress to recognise the GPA,” explained county chairman Pat Darcy. “Our view is that if the GPA want to become a part of the association, they can become affiliated, like any other unit.”

He added Tyrone officials had a number of concerns over proposals to officially recognise the GPA, not least proposals to allocate significant funding to the organisation.

In Donegal, club delegates also discussed the issue on Monday night and again concern was expressed over the proposed funding by the GAA for the GPA. It was originally proposed the matter be postponed until January to allow delegates to get more information, but when Central Council delegate Brian McEniff asked to be directed should a request for a postponement be turned down, the delegates voted unanimously he should oppose the merger. Concern was also expressed that the GPA was an elitist organisation, representing only five per cent of the total GAA players in the country.

Broadly speaking, more counties have come out in support of the agreement, including Tipperary, Wexford, Kerry and Dublin, who discussed it on Monday night. About 50 club delegates were represented and they voted to support the agreement which, if passed at Congress, will see the GPA funded by the GAA by €1.6 million next year. Cork, typically an influential county in such matters, postponed making a decision until tonight’s meeting after delegates last week voiced some opposition to the deal.

Yesterday, the GAA’s operations manager, Feargal McGill, said the feedback they have been receiving on the agreement has been almost unanimously positive, but that they certainly weren’t treating Saturday’s Central Council approval as a formality.

“We wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s a formality, but almost all of the feedback we have got has been very positive,” he said. “A few counties have sought clarification, as you would expect at this stage, and on an issue as broad-ranging as this. Saturday is about agreeing to the interim agreement for the coming year. It is a policy decision at this stage, and that only requires a simply majority.

“In terms of the motion for Congress, and whether that will require a two-thirds majority, that will depend on how the motion is phrased. But the reality is a simple majority is no good to us. It would want to be a lot more than that if we are to have the moral authority to proceed.”

This week GAA president Christy Cooney admitted the agreement on GPA recognition was proving “a sensitive issue” but that some of the commentary which greeted the announcement had been “disappointing and disingenuous”. Yet he remained confident the agreement would be acknowledged in the coming weeks and months by the membership.