Image rights escalate phoney war

In a further conflict arising from recent telecom partnerships within the GAA, the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) has accused one rival promotion as displaying the "blatant abuse of player rights".

They claimed the GAA's official telecom partner uses Cork hurler Jerry O'Connor in a promotional capacity without this permission, and have demanded the image be withdrawn or altered with immediate effect.

Describing the matter in a short statement, the GPA said any company conducting business in the prevailing GAA commercial environment should be aware of the increasingly prominent role of players' image rights.

"A company whose service the GAA have chosen to endorse have used a prominent player image in a promotional capacity, showing no regard for the player concerned. This displays scant regard for advertising regulations. However, the issue of greatest concern is that the GAA public might be misled into believing that a player of Jerry O'Connor's standing endorses the service in question."

The GPA pointed out that O'Connor in fact endorsed the GPA's telecom service provider, which was announced a month before the GAA's similar partnership.

This follows another conflict earlier in the week when the GPA claimed that Armagh footballer Steven McDonnell had been inaccurately linked with a third GAA-linked telecom promotion. The GPA added that the association did impose a "moral obligation on our members to respect our own commercial programme".

The three players linked with the last-mentioned deal, Cork's Colin Corkery, Galway's Pádraic Joyce and Tipperary's Eoin Kelly, attended Tuesday's official launch in Dublin. Yet Corkery didn't envisage any conflict, stating he was committed to endorsing the new telecom company long before he knew the GPA had planned a similar deal.

Clearly the situation indicates how the issue of players' rights is only gradually taking hold.