The face-off between the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and the GAA over player expenses isn't going away. It has been ramped up this weekend by a vote taken on Thursday night by more than 60 team reps and captains to, in their words, "escalate the player protest".
In a circular sent to all GPA members on Friday, chief executive Tom Parsons stated that while the vote had been unanimous, the players' group was still open to discussions with the GAA to resolve the issues at hand.
The escalation will take the form of a refusal to be part of TV interviews at this weekend’s matches in the final round of the football league and the semi-finals of the hurling league. The GPA have confirmed to The Irish Times that this applies to television broadcasts only and that players will still be available for interview by the written press and radio.
The thinking behind the move is therefore obvious – to deprive sponsors of the spotlight provided by TV and online footage of postmatch interviews, thereby bringing commercial pressure to bear on Croke Park.
“Specifically for televised broadcast interviews on match day, players will continue to make themselves unavailable,” Parsons wrote. “No players will attend the launch of any GAA competitions at national or provincial level in the coming weeks. Players will write to the GAA’s commercial sponsors to inform them of the position of players and flag that disruption of upcoming events is likely.”
The move comes at the trickiest possible time for all involved. With just three weeks to go until the start of the championship, there is a thick sheaf of league business to get off the desk first. This weekend will tidy up the bulk of it, as all 32 counties play out their last regulation league game and Cork, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford decide the hurling final pairing.
In all, TG4 will be covering five matches live, either on TV or on their YouTube channel. League sponsor Allianz will therefore miss out on multiple opportunities to have their logo visible in the backdrop of postmatch interviews. Further down the line, Allianz had scheduled launch events for the league finals, which players will not now attend. And unless some sort of detente is found, no players will turn up the various championship launches organised by the six named sponsors of the All-Irelands in the coming weeks either.
Cost-control measure
The GPA’s position is that they have been forced into taking this action by what they see as the GAA’s decision to use players as a cost-control measure. Croke Park have been clear on the need to reduce the burden of the millions spent on preparing teams for the intercounty game. The GPA have been equally clear that it should not cost players money to train and play for their county.
“In one county, more than 20 players living outside their county are not being permitted to claim expenses from that address Friday to Sunday,” said Parsons. “Attempts are being made to force them to only claim expenses from their family address within their county. This is despite the fact that their sole reason for this journey is to attend training. If imposed this could result in financial distress to players, especially students.
“It was noted on the call that some players who have trained during pre-season and national league who subsequently get released from their squads are not being offered expenses. Where squads are carrying more than 32 players [which is the majority], those additional players are in some cases being treated differently to those within the 32. That’s despite there being no difference in the preparation and training levels for these players. The imposed charter by the GAA does not protect them, as it serves 32.
“The examples discussed above show why local negotiations, which the GAA are trying to impose on players, is going against the culture of treating all players equally. We all agreed that when it comes to basic expenses, all players training and preparing to play our intercounty games should be treated equally.”
The GAA had no comment to make on the matter.
