The GAA will never let it happen

Across all the views of the pro- and the anti- grants camps a strong point of agreement would appear to be that professionalism would be bad, if not ruinous, for the GAA. The consequences of professionalism don't have to be explained: GAA members appear to be well-informed of what they are already. But, what they don't agree on is the proximity and the degree of danger. Those for the grant, but against professionalism, are not worried because, they say, the GAA and its members will never let that happen. 

It doesn't matter if Dessie and the GPA see the grant as an interim measure--as just a "battle" in the "war" for professionalism. It doesn't matter if the next generation of GPA members are reared in an Association with diluted ideals and principles regarding payments for players, because, as the logic seems to go, when the GAA is faced with the clear and present danger of professionalism, the members will rise-up to defeat it.  

That's why the players can be appeased with with a few bob. The GAA will ultimately decide; they are, afterall in charge, or at least should be. That's why the anti-grants movement can be dismissed with a sneer by Messrs. O'Rourke and Breheny as a bunch of non-sensical anarchists. The GAA should be the only arbitrator of its own affairs and appeals to courts and non-GAA bodies by upstarts should be eradicated. 

Yes they should. That's exactly the point the anti-grant group is trying to make! 

"Who is running the show?", indeed. 

With the grant  in place, the answer will not be the GAA, as some, if not most, naively believe. 

By introducing the grant the GAA will no longer control its own destiny. It's hands will be tied. Just like UEFA's, just like FIFA's, and just like every other sporting organisation that has been ensarled by the four freedoms of the European Union (free movement of goods, services, labour and capital). It is the European Commission and the European Court of Justice that will now decide the GAA's fate. The precedents are there --Walrave, Donà, Bosman, Deliège (the one GAA members and grant advocates should fear) Kolpak, Meca-Medina etc.-; that's what Of One Belief is desperately trying to point out. 

UEFA and FIFA would like to protect football. They would like to be able to regulate their own sport. They would like to tackle the number of foreigner players playing in domestic competitions. They can't. Freedom of movement. They would like to address the competitive imbalance in and between leagues. They can't. EU Competition law.  They've been lobbying to get the principle of the "specificity" of sport enshrined in the EU treaties to balance the influence of the EU on the game and regain some control, but have so far failed. And, while the EU has stopped short of treating sport as "just another business" there is no mistaking that it is the forces of the free market that reign supreme in football. While some, like the Premier League, are happy to exploit this to their advantage, not everyone thinks that greed is good.

 

So while the danger is not yet clear for some, it is present. Don't think that the GAA will be cocooned away from the implications of the EU law. The grant establishes the link with the EU legal framework and all it will take is one disgruntled party from inside our own ranks to exploit it.

And, sadly, we never seem to be short of them. 

The grants, the GAA's amateur status, and EU law

Jean-Marc Bosman was catapulted into the headlines in 1995 by a "landmark" ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The Bosman case transformed the player transfer system and changed the make-up of club sides throughout Europe by effectively ending limits on "foreign" players in clubs in Europe. Nearly every GAA fan knows that the consequences for soccer have been far-reaching and all would agree that a Bosman scenario would be catastrophic for Gaelic games. No one wants to see a transfer system in place because the county is fundamental to Gaelic games. But how professional or amateur do our games have to be for the Bosman ruling to apply? And where does the grant leave us on that question?

The GAA Central Council claims that "nothing in this agreement shall be allowed to undermine the amateur status of Gaelic games". The Bosman ruling would apper to validate this claim: the essential difference between an amateur and a professional or-semi-professional is that the professional earns a salary under contract and is thus regarded as an employee, and that his activity as a player is not to be regarded as purely marginal. Therefore, it would seem the grant would have little or no effect. But, it's not just the Bosman ruling we need to be concerned about.

In a less-celebrated case five years after Bosman, Christelle Deliège*, a Belgian judoka (a practitioner of judo is known as a judoka) who practised judo at an international level, challenged the Belgian Judo League's (BJKL) federation-based system of selection of competitors for international competitions. The importance of this case for the GAA and the grants system is not the decision on the dispute itself, which concerned the authority of the BJKL to determine selection for participation in the Olympic Games, but rather the court's conclusion in relation to Ms Deliège's status.

Although the case concerned the participation of Ms Deliège in an international tournament for which she would not be paid, Ms Deliège claimed that she practiced judo professionally or semi-professionally. The BJKL disagreed, arguing that judo is a sport which, in Europe and in Belgium in particular, is practised by amateurs. It is the court's analysis and determination of this question-where the distinction between amateur and professional lies- that is of interest to the GAA.

The GAA and the GPA that all parties involved "state their absolute commitment to the maintenance of the amateur status" is worthless. 

Notably, the BKJL claimed that judo was an activity that is not pursued for profit, but which aims to satisfy social and cultural aspirations. No doubt, the GAA would too. The amendment added to the agreement with the GPA that all parties "state their absolute commitment to the maintenance of the amateur status" tends to suggest that the GAA thinks a claim, or affirmation, of amateur status by those involved-both the players and the Association itself-offers some sort of legal protection. It doesn't: the court noted that, although relevant, the mere fact that a sports association or federation unilaterally classifies its members as amateur athletes does not in itself mean that those members do not engage in economic activity.

The factors that determine whether members engage in economic activity were then analysed by Cosmas, the Advocate General (the AG advises the court on the legal matters ahead of the final decision) in the case. Cosmas' analysis of Ms Deliège's activities and conclusion that her practice of judo constituted an economic activity should alarm the GAA, as it undermines the assertion that the grants agreement does not harm the GAA's amateur status. 

Firstly, Cosmas pointed out that the Ms Deliège the size of the grants Ms Deliège received from the federation were irrelevant. It was the legal nature of the 'contributions' that she recieved that mattered. Contributions or grants to athletes "were analysed from the point of view of the possibility it gives to the advanced level sportsman, who receives the contributions to devote himself to the sport as would a professional sportsman." Although it is arguable the sums of money which the grant will involve will not permit GAA players to pursue their sporting career in the same way and under the same conditions as a professional, they are a start down that road. According to the agreement between the GAA, the GPA and the government the grant is designed "to meet additional costs associated with elite team performance and to encourage aspiring teams and players to reach the highest levels of sporting endeavour". The grants will be awarded on the basis of "standards and performance-based criteria". 

Secondly, although the Advocate General distinguished amateur athletes from others who "carry out their activity on a continual basis and receive financial support the objective of which exceeds the mere improvement of their performance." Critically for the GAA, the Advocate General concluded that the regular payment of aid by federations to their champions often extends beyond the context of performance enhancement. High-level athletes provide an important service to the sport's governing bodies-their success makes them idols helping attract young people to the federation, they are a magnet for sponsors and provide an argument for sports organisations to rely on when seeking a larger share of publicly-funded subsidies. In certain cases these non-amateur athletes provide to the governing bodies, of a so-called amateur sport, services in return for which it receives various forms of material or financial aid on a regular basis. These athletes pursue an economic activity which falls within the scope of EU law. 

The Advocate General's reasoning would tend to suggest that it does not matter whether the players receive the grant directly from the federation or from elsewhere; what matters is that the grants are paid to them consistently over a period of time and are dependent on their participation in the sport. The hullabaloo over whether it is the GAA or the Sports Council that pays the grant would then be irrelevant. Paying a grant for participating in a sport establishes an economic link under EU law.

Thirdly, the Advocate General also considered it necessary to look at whether the sporting activities themselves have an economic dimension. If the organiser of a sporting competition offers athletes an opportunity to compete with others, and, at the same time, the athletes, by participating in the competition, enable the organiser to put on a sports event which the public pays to attend, which generates television broadcasting rights, and which, may be of interest to advertisers and sponsors, then it constitutes an economic event. That is already the case in GAA today.

Finally, Ms Deliège's individual sponsorship contracts were also taken into condisderation. Cosmas determined that it was wrong to separate completely an athlete's performance and sporting activity from the advertising service provided to the sponsors as sporting performance and advertising services are so closely linked. Advertising through sponsorship requires high-level athletes who are known to the general public precisely because of their participation in major sporting events. Products as diverse as Ivomec 20 (Joe Cooney) and Club Energise (the GPA) have capitalised on the profile of the players and the GAA to capture their markets for many years now.

From the combination of the various factors outlined above the Advocate General concluded that Ms Deliège was in principle protected by EU law and in particular by the rules on freedom to provide services. In other words, she had the same protection under EU law as Bosman did.

Although Gaelic players may not yet qualify under these conditions as non-amateur athletes-like Ms Deliège did-and therefore be protected by EU law, it is clear that the closer the link between sport and economic activity the more relevant the rules of EU law. Paying a grant to players strengthens this link. Paying a grant to players harms the GAA's amateur status.  


*Christelle Deliège V Ligue Francophone de Judo et Disciplines ASBL (Joined cases C-51/96 and C-191/97)

Dessie and the GPA

Eason bookshop. The 28th December. The sales.


And there it was.

Dessie. Tangled Up in Blue.

On sale at .99 cent!

Even though they were basically giving the book away for free, I still had to think twice . But then I thought to myself, less than one Euro to discover why Dessie is so bitter towards the GAA, maybe it's a price worth paying. So, I splashed out.

What did I learn? Noting new. Yes, the GPA has some rationale for existing and has done great work in terms of ensuring better welfare for players. Improvements in expenses, training and medical facilities, insurance and injury schemes for players and ensuring their medical bills are paid were warranted. The GPA deserves credit for provoking the GAA into action on these matters. It also seems that the GPA advanced the cause of the state of play for many of the weaker hurling counties. Again, a worthy cause and the GPA should be praised for advancing their case.

But, what is clear from the book, and is largely unexplained - save for the Maoist attitude of some county board officials, which Dessie has experienced, and one that the majority of GAA members are well aware of and have suffered themselves - is the reason for Dessie's spite towards officials and the GAA.  Ultimately, it seems, his hostility stems from his opposition to where power lies in the GAA - in the committees, county boards and councils.

Dessie makes it clear; he wants that to change. If you've no inter-county experience, in Dessie's opinion, your view doesn't count. Inter-county is the be-all and end-all. Nevermind the rest of us. We don't matter, because we didn't play at the highest level.

Dessie wants the GAA should turn its sporting pyramid on its head and build from the top. (Luckily for the Egyptian tourist industry the pharaoh's construction supervisors didn't think likewise). 

"I maintain that the inter-county teams remain the ideal and, if well attended to, will nurture all levels beneath it, inspiring young players to persevere with the game".

If you get the 1% right, hey presto, the other 99% will fall into place. Simple. Because, once the inter-county stars are well looked-after, the rest of the GAA can run on aspiration and inspiration. Just like football in England perhaps?

The Premier League, where the best and highest paid footballers in the world strut their stuff every week. Yet, this in the country where the national team can't even qualify for the European Championships and as David Conn, explains in the "The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football", English football is sharply polarised between rich and poor, and has lost its soul.

The reason is that Dessie doesn't consider the inter-county players on the same terms as other members of the GAA. Because the inter-county players are making a greater contribution than all other members, they should be getting something "more tangible" for their efforts. Kudos and adulation is not enough.

"For years, I had listened to players sitting on bar stools over the winter complaining about how they were treated. They didn't really buy into the traditional GAA line, certainly not the one that highlighted our ethereal rewards - honour, adulation, camaraderie, recognition - they wanted something more tangible."

Does anyone really believe the GPA when they say they don't want professionalism in GAA?

"No matter how many times they were told that they were just another part of the Association, many inter-county players knew they weren't. Who, after all, was filling the coffers of the GAA, allowing all the myth-makers to wax lyrical about how wonderful an organisation it was?"

Could it be ordinary GAA people? The ones who contribute at the bottom - through volunteering, coaching etc - and at the top of the organisation - by paying to watch the games. And unlike the soccer grassroots, who watch the Premier League every week in England, paying outrageous money to see the games in the stadia and on TV, and buy the jerseys, the GAA grassroots can sleep comfortably knowing that their hard earned cash has not gone directly to some chav footballer (Noel Gallagher's words, not mine) who has been in an orgy, at a 4,000 pound a man Christmas party. The GAA's grassroots know that they get value for their money, because what they spend in Croke Park gets reinvested in the game, not porn sites (Shaun Wright Philips), nor fast cars, nor bling bling.

And with the GPA here to stay - as Dessie keenly empahsizes in the penultimate chapter - it's going to be hard to keep it that way.

The GPA has cried wolf too often

The Gaelic Players' Association (GPA) is threatening anew to hold our national games to ransom. Disgruntled with the lack of progress over how to distribute the €5 million put aside by the previous Minister for Sport, John O'Donoghue, the GPA Chief Executive, Dessie Farrell, has once again hinted at strike action (see Irish Times, 5th September 2007, GPA suggest strike action on €5 million) if the issue isn't quickly resolved. The Greedy Players' Association is impatient. They want to get their hands on the money and they want it now.

This is crying wolf one time too many (see An Fear Rua, Are the GPA like the boy who cried wolf?). It's time that the vast majority of the GAA-the volunteers, players of all levels, and supporters-stand up  to these ultimatums and let the GPA know that strike action will not be tolerated.

Sure, the GPA has some legitimate grievances, and pressure from the organization has improved the GAA's attitude to players' well being. The appointment of Paraic Duffy, a player welfare officer, by the GAA, is an example of progress, a direct result of the influence the GPA has brought to bear on GAA headquarters. Improvements in other areas on the GPA's campaign list, such as improving the insurance/injury scheme for all club and county players and taking action to solve the fixture crisis, would also be welcome improvements to our games for all players and supporters.

However, the fundamental problem with the GPA, despite their protestations to the contrary, is that they are pushing the GAA toward 'pay-for-play'. Although they say they realize this is not feasible (see for example this interview with Dessie Farrell in DCU's alumni magazine), whether be design or direct consequence, their actions are driving this dangerous momentum. 

It's hard to trust the GPA on 'pay-for-play' when one of their objectives is a collective bargaining agreement with the GAA. Do they really consider their situation is akin to negotiations between a union and employers? Read their website and the statements they make. The speak about themselves as if they were exploited workers in a sweatshop. The fix they want is easy though. Compensation can relieve their "plight". Their newly designed logo also displays their avarice, as it's a blatant rip-off of the NBA (National Basketball Association) and MLB (Major League Baseball) logos, both professional sports organizations. 

It's only very recently that the GPA has created an Associate Membership scheme to "enable all GAA players, club members, supporters/fans and officials to become part of the GPA network". The aim is to strengthen the bond between club and county. Whey has it taken them eight years? At least they can take credit for realizing that such a bond exists. Once again however, the true intention of this scheme is not clear-cut. GPA Associate  members will not have voting rights and will have no influence on the organization. What's the interest so? Well, the associate membership fee of €50 allows access to a wide range of offers and services from the GPA, not to mention, a polo shirt with the GPA logo. While a good deal on car insurance may be welcome the GPA will no doubt, use their new "grassroots" members to further legitimate their organization and in future claim that the GPA represents a broad spectrum of the GAA, top to bottom, and not just inter-county players. Watch to see how they spin this in the future and look to leverage a broader membership base in negotiations with the GAA. Or maybe that's too cynical and Dessie wants a salary to match his lofty title.

The common good of the GAA is threatened by the GPA's self-interest in pursuit of compensation. The GPA is constantly reminding us of how much financially they loose through their commitment and dedication to playing Gaelic games. Their lack of concern with reports that county boards are digging themselves into a financial black hole of debt, brought about by the increased cost of player travel, catering and medical expenses that is stretching their budgets to the limit. According to the Irish Independent, Westmeath's debt has climbed to €641,000 (see Irish Independent, August 10th 2007, Westmeath football on the brink of financial crisis) and the county board is facing a financial crisis. If you think this is an isolated case of mismanaged finances, think again. In an interview with the Sunday Independent on 10 June 2007,  Tipperary Manager, Babs Keating, revealed that the Tipperary County Board had spent €870,000 training the inter-county teams in 2006, with no success to show for it, or indeed, to pay for it. As Babs said, in his time "the players togged out under a galvanised sheet with only a lantern to light them and after training you'd just have a cup of tea and a sandwich. But the present squad aren't left for anything". If the figures are like that now what would they be like of the players are receiving payment directly? 

At a time when the GAA is coming under such financial pressure, and facing serious competition for players and members from rugby and soccer, the focus of all within the organization should be on putting money back into the game: improving competitive structures for players at all levels and working to encourage more volunteers to help out with the running of clubs and the coaching of players. 

So it's time to say enough is enough to the self-interested GPA. As TV3's 6-part documentary series, "Grass Roots of the GAA", rightly points out, the volunteers of the organization who give their time-at no cost-to coach, administer, look after grounds, coordinate fundraising, drive youngsters to games, and wash the dirty jerseys, are the real heroes of the GAA. It's their work and passion behind the scenes that is fundamental to the success of the GAA. The spotlight has been on the inter-county players for too long. They are the tip of the iceberg. It's time to talk about the unsung heroes and time the GPA stopped crying wolf, their credibility is wearing thin.