Gaelic Games News round-upGAA president Seán Kelly has expressed his unhappiness at the ongoing impasse between RTÉ and the Gaelic Players Association in relation to the product placement of the Club Energise sports drink.

A number of county panels are refusing to co-operate with post-match interviews since the broadcaster prohibited the drinking of product during such interviews, of which manufacturers C&C were offering €500.

"There are concerns," said Kelly yesterday. "Nobody likes to see ambush marketing or product placement. It's a problem for C&C rather than anyone else although the GAA and players have borne the brunt of the controversy."

RTÉ maintain they are obliged by law not to allow product placement and talks about resolving the dispute have stretched longer than either party expected without any compromise so far being reached.

"RTÉ have standards and obligations to sponsors under law," according to Kelly. "Players are pawns in the middle of this. You can't blame them if someone's willing to offer €500 to take a swig of a bottle. It's a form of cheap advertising and it doesn't fit with the modern image of the GAA or with what RTÉ are trying to do in terms of presentation."

Kelly also referred to the presence of one of C&C's competitors as sponsors of individual counties.

"I'm surprised there has been no response from the people responsible and find it hard to understand how a reputable company would want to do something like this. Advertising rules exist and there are players who are part of advertising campaigns with C&C's rivals, Lucozade. I don't know how they're meant to feel about this."

Both C&C and Lucozade have conducted advertising campaigns involving Gaelic games players although Club Energise has benefited more players, 115, through its marketing and scholarship schemes as well as being a major funder of the GPA on the basis of a royalty payment to the association based on sales over 10 years.

Kelly ruled out any direct intervention from Croke Park to try to resolve the issue. "It's something that's out of our hands. If we were to get involved in this we'd be painted as anti-player, which we're not."

RTÉ are unhappy with the unavailability of players given the station has just recently concluded a multi-million euro rights deal to continue coverage of Gaelic games.

Another broadcasting issue that has made RTÉ unhappy is the sudden switch of next month's Ulster football final from Clones to Croke Park. Given it is a repeat of the 2003 All-Ireland final, the Armagh-Tyrone match is expected to attract a capacity attendance.

But the move from the scheduled date of July 17th to a week earlier has created trouble for the broadcaster's schedules. When the programme of live matches was drawn up, the Ulster final was due to take place on the same afternoon as its Leinster equivalent and both were to be broadcast by RTÉ. Now not only has that gone by the board but the Ulster final will take place on the same afternoon as the Connacht and Munster finals.

"Well I suppose this has been a problem for RTÉ," said Kelly, "but hopefully it's a once-off. The Ulster Council didn't know originally they'd be playing the match outside of the province but once they saw the demand they got the permission of the other provinces."

It had been initially thought Ulster would take the Saturday before the Leinster final, obviously scheduled for Croke Park, but according to Kelly that would have reduced the attendance. "I think there was a fear the whole thing could turn out to be a damp squib between moving out of the province and then moving from a Sunday and that they mightn't get half the crowd."

Both of the weekend's Leinster hurling finalists have deferred the announcement of their teams. Champions Wexford and Kilkenny were to have released their line-ups yesterday but won't do so until tonight and tomorrow, respectively. "Everybody will be okay," said Wexford PRO Alan Aherne, "apart from Darren Stamp who has a stress fracture of the heel."

Kilkenny will not name a team until tomorrow night. There are concerns about Derek Lyng who is described as "doubtful" for Sunday.

Antrim hurlers will delay announcing their side to face Galway until before the throw-in on Saturday.

Dual player Conor Fitzgerald comes into the Limerick attack in place of Pat Tobin for Saturday's visit to Laois in the All-Ireland senior hurling qualifiers.

LIMERICK (SH v Laois): T Houlihan; D Reale, S Lucey, P O'Dwyer; O Moran, B Geary, P Lawlor; D O'Grady, P O'Grady; C Fitzgerald, N Moran, A O'Shaughnessy; D Ryan, TJ Ryan, D Sheehan.