By John Harrington

The GAA cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the culture of illegal payments to team managers at club and county level.

That was the warning issued today by outgoing GAA Ard Stiurthóir Páraic Duffy in his Annual Report.

It’s a topic that he first addressed back in 2010 when he circulated a paper on the issue of payments to inter-county managers.

He admits in his Annual Report which has been published today that the initiative he took just over seven years ago did not have the desired effect because “there was a lack of enthusiasm for any attempt to implement the proposals made in the paper.”

He insists the practice of paying coaches and managers is one the GAA cannot continue turning a blind eye to because it leaves the Association open to accusations of double-standards as far as amateurism is concerned.

“It needs to be very firmly stated again that not all managers are being paid,” wrote Duffy in his Annual Report.

“Many county-team and club-team managers are not being rewarded financially (beyond, that is, the legitimate expenses they receive for carrying out their function).

“The most significant development since 2010, in my view, is that an increasing number of irregular payments are now being made at club level.

“Such payments strike at the heart of the origins and relevance of the Association’s amateur and volunteer ethos.

“People give their time to their club because, in so doing, they know that they are giving time to their community.

“One need only look at the extraordinary efforts that volunteers make to keep their clubs vibrant and their facilities upgraded.

“I believe that many members of clubs are uneasy about the practice of paying managers and coaches outside of legitimate expenses, yet no one seems able to stop the practice.

“One idea floated is that counties and clubs should be allowed to avail of the services of members only from within their own county or from within their own club. It is a proposal with obvious merits, but which also raises concerns.

“Many clubs and counties have benefited, without breaching our amateur-status rules, from the expertise of outside coaches who enjoy coaching/ managing but for whom the pathway to the main positions in their own club or county is blocked.

“We must be clear on the issue here: it is not about availing of the services of ‘outsiders’; it is solely about making payments in breach of our amateur-status ethos.”

GAA rules that are difficult to monitor, or that confront comfortable ways of doing things, tend to be ignored

The Ard Stiúrthóir believes it’s time to have the sort of transparent debate on the issue that didn’t take place back in 2010, and to consider potentially ‘bruising’ solutions to the problem that may ‘challenge deeply embedded attitudes’.

“Where do we go from here?”, wrote the Ard Stiúrthóir in his Annual Report.

“Over the past 15 years we have been carrying on a debate about how we should recognise the contribution of our inter-county players to our games, but without giving way to some who advocate a ‘pay-to-play’ policy.

“The arrangements for the funding of the GPA are now fully in the public domain and have been widely debated.

“The Recognition Protocol 2017-2019 between the GAA and GPA sets out clear requirements in relation to the provision of funding for player welfare and governance.

“Some do not like the funding arrangement, but the reality is that the GPA is committed to the maintenance and protection of the amateur status of the GAA; indeed, the pursuit by the GPA of its objectives is subject to that commitment.

“That outcome emerged only after a long and difficult debate about the best ways to maintain the amateur status of players and after a recognition that the provision of a strong player welfare service was the key to retaining our amateur status.

“We need a similar debate on what our amateur status means in terms of payments to managers and coaches.

“The Management Committee is looking at ways of strengthening the rule on amateur status, but I doubt if a change of rule on its own will make much difference.

“GAA rules that are difficult to monitor, or that confront comfortable ways of doing things, tend to be ignored.

“The great difficulty we face is that we are challenging deeply embedded attitudes that inform our behaviour, and that are therefore difficult to change. But we need to find a way to instigate the debate we avoided in 2010.

“It may be bruising and may take time, but it will provide an opportunity to begin to change the existing payments culture and to come to a position consistent with our declared values.

“I wrote in 2010 that the choice facing the Association was a simple one: either we do nothing in the certain knowledge that nothing will change and that in five or ten years we would still be lamenting the damage to our ethos and values – or we decide that it would be irresolute and defeatist not to confront directly a practice that we proclaim to be a blemish on the Association.

“The choice is the same one now, and the need to address it even greater.”