GAA and GPA agree resolution process over expenses dispute

Agreement has been reached on a process of resolution in the expenses dispute between the GAA and GPA. Despite this it is believed that the player boycott of television interviews will be maintained pending a final agreement.

The parties attended what was a scheduled meeting on Thursday morning and the ongoing issues surrounding player expenses were discussed, according to a brief statement issued later on in the afternoon.

“The GAA and the players’ representative body, the GPA, met this morning to discuss the ongoing dispute regarding player expenses. The meeting was productive and a framework was put in place to try and reach a resolution. Both parties will re-engage under the terms of that framework over the course of the coming weeks.”

The dispute arose in March when the GPA announced that they were considering their options after talks on a new Players' Charter had broken down. Despite that the GAA pushed ahead and according to Croke Park, adopted the charter in order to start clearing the backlog of players' expenses, which had been awaiting the terms of the new arrangement.

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Players had taken a cut in expenses during the pandemic and were unhappy at the proposed reinstatement of the status quo ante, which they maintained had been promised when they accepted the cuts.

The two areas of dispute were firstly how many training sessions or matches were covered, as the GAA changed the terms of the charter to limit the number to four per week. Anything beyond that would not be processed centrally in the cash flow arrangement that sees Croke Park expedite payment on behalf of counties.

It later emerged that very few county panels were actually claiming for more than four sessions a week and any that did were being paid by the counties.

The other issue has been the cap on panel numbers with no more than 32 players being eligible for the centrally administered advance payments, something against which the GPA have strenuously argued.

Discontent in he players’ body led to a media boycott, which evolved into a specifically television targeted protest in order to exert pressure on GAA sponsors, who have missed the promotional platform of branded post-match interviews.

With the championship about to start, a new set of sponsors are due to be inconvenienced and the GAA will be anxious that the dispute is resolved as soon as possible.