The GAA’s Amateur Status Review Committee will present its findings to Saturday’s Central Council meeting.
Two motions for congress will be before the delegates, neither of which propose any of the remuneration options for managers that were in circulation during the consultation process.
The central proposal is to introduce a new GAA certification framework, which is hoped will operate like Uefa’s licensing system, which is referenced as having “effectively eradicated concerns around the financial sustainability of the game, and its affiliated clubs, across Europe challenging the highly damaging practices of club owners before this reform was introduced.”
It will be backed by a dedicated Certification, Governance and Oversight Committee to implement guidelines around player welfare, compliance with amateur status and governance.
READ MORE
There is also a second proposal to redraft Rule 1.8 of the Official Guide, which the report states is no longer fit for purpose.
“The rule, as it is currently written, is vague and requires updating, which, if approved, would constitute only the third revision of this rule in over 70 years.”
The report was drawn up in the context of ongoing engagement between the GAA and Revenue, which are yet to concluded.
“In specific terms, whilst payments that are made and received as part of approved expenses (by Árd Chomhairle) remain permissible, there is now considerable scrutiny of payments that may exceed these and, alongside this, whether any such payments give rise to an ‘employer-employee’ relationship, which, if this is the conclusion that is drawn, would have profound implications for the GAA at all levels.”
One of the feedback groups involved inter-county managers but it received a poor response.
“It should be noted that this consultation was held with only a small cohort of either current or former senior intercounty managers. A total of 22 recently retired or current inter-county GAA managers were approached to participate in this focus group, but most either declined the invitation to do so or did not respond.”
Nonetheless, the report states that the limited response was still relevant in the overall context of the report.
There are suggested guidelines for preseason observance of the new framework: a financial statements template, to encourage greater transparency in county team finances; an Annual Maximum Expenditure Limit at inter-county level or spending cap; counties to use only GAA-supplied and approved GPS trackers and abide by a data-sharing agreement with the association.
“Without this anonymised central data set,” the report states, “a full understanding of the physical demands placed on players, accurate information on injury prevalence and severity, and other such markers are currently placed beyond the reach of the GAA.”
The data would also be made available to the Central GAA Injury Database.
Completion of an intercounty managers’ development and/or induction programme would also be mandatory for certification.
“Currently, there is no officially recognised development framework, and therefore no qualification requirements, for GAA intercounty team managers.
“This framework needs to be established and implemented, with an up-to-date GAA Inter-County Management qualification becoming mandatory as a minimum for managing senior inter-county GAA teams that participate in the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy competitions (initially).”
In season, certification would be dependent on the following protocols: a limit on the number of paid members of backroom teams; adherence to agreed contact hours and closed season policies; adherence to the anti-doping code; a maximum number of players on intercounty panels (suggested as 36 but subject to Central Council).
Motion 2 proposes changed to Rule 1.8 to specify the ways in which commercial endorsements may be entered into, and then provides that, apart from what is stated in rule, nobody shall accept cash from any party in conjunction with the playing of Gaelic games, ruling out benefactor payments.
