News round-up:There is still no breakthrough in sight in relation to the stand-off in Cork between the county board and the senior football and hurling panels. The next board meeting isn't scheduled until this day week, just four days before the footballers are due to begin their National League campaign against Meath.

Although it is expected that there will be renewed attempts to resolve the dispute, which arose over the decision not to allow the new football manager choose his own selectors, so far meetings between officers and players have failed to come up with a workable solution.

Given the proximity of the league and the likely impact of Cork's withdrawal on both the Football League and Hurling League, Croke Park will have to decide in the next few days about the advisability of any intervention by the GAA at national level.

The crux of the matter remains the board's appointment of Teddy Holland as new football management despite the players' request that all candidates for the position stand back until the dispute had been settled. At present the footballers are refusing to play under Holland, who with his selectors shows no sign of being willing to resign.

In the circumstances it is very hard to see sufficient room for manoeuvre in which an agreement could be worked out.

Meanwhile the GAA remains on track to conclude its new sponsorship agreements within the coming weeks.

The association will appoint a new sponsorship executive to deal with the expanded responsibilities of the new sponsorship model.

The switch from exclusive title sponsors to a Champions League arrangement of three joint sponsors per championship is in progress and will be finalised after the broadcasting rights. This is because the new proposed sponsorship includes broadcast branding.

"People are not unreasonably asking: 'can you guarantee this?'", according to Dermot Power, the GAA's commercial and marketing manager. "We obviously can't do that until the television contracts are signed. The championships will no longer have a title sponsor but there will be event sponsors and broadcast sponsors."

At present there are still more than six companies involved in the negotiations, which will lead to three sponsors for both championships.

The latter will be less expensive, as there are fewer matches and in the opening weeks of the season, a major geographical bias towards the south of the country. But the better news for those companies interested in the hurling is that the cumulative totals of average audiences for televised matches show that the game ran football quite close last season with 8,063,000 watching the hurling as against 8,987,000.

Power said that the more complex sponsorship would require the association to tighten its procedures.

"It's more difficult to finalise contractual agreements when you have more than one sponsorship partner, and particularly a new one, than when you're dealing exclusively with one company."

Guinness, formerly sole title sponsors of the hurling championship, remain interested in continuing their involvement although their football counterparts since 1994, Bank of Ireland have decided to withdraw.

Finally Tyrone manager Mickey Harte said that he is more optimistic about his panel's fitness this season than 12 months ago. Brian McGuigan, who has missed the past two years because of an accumulation of terrible injuries, is back taking a full part in training and Harte expects him to be available for the upcoming National League, describing his rehabilitation as "very encouraging".

He also said he hoped to have former Footballer of the Year Stephen O'Neill back for the latter stages of the league although it was unlikely that would be before the end of March.

"Joe McMahon is likely to be out for a couple of months as well, as he needs a groin operation but Brian Dooher and Ryan McMenamin are expected back by mid-February and Seán Cavanagh should be available for the league."