GAA: The GAA yesterday announced that the Bank of Ireland is to sponsor the football championship for a further four years.

The sponsorship is believed to be worth around €1.5 million a year to the GAA. The current agreement - which is estimated at €1.25 million a year - is due to expire at the conclusion of the 2003 championship season.

The Guinness sponsorship of the hurling championship - €900,000 a year - is up for renegotiation next year

"We are delighted by this," said GAA president Seán McCague at yesterday's announcement of the football sponsorship at College Green.

"It is an exciting time for the championship, with the introduction of the qualifiers two years ago providing us with many more games, a host of novel pairings and the prominence of teams such as Sligo, Westmeath and Limerick adding great interest to the competition."

The past half-decade has seen an explosive surge of interest and profile for the summer games, with the number of matches practically doubled and with media exposure continuing to expand.

Bank of Ireland was the first sponsor of the football competition in 1994 and has taken up the option to renew since. Acknowledging that the scale of the investment was significant and demanded serious consideration Des Crowley, the chief executive of the Retail Financial Services sector, believes that the relationship can continue to flourish over the next four years.

The qualifying system and the fact that the newly-refurbished Croke Park caught the public imagination renders the football tournament a more attractive entity than ever before.

Some 1.2 million people attended the 2002 championship and market research has shown that 96 per cent of the Irish public are aware of the tournament.

McCague noted that the next four years should also see tremendous changes and advances within the association. Many of the game's top players have begun to agitate for improved conditions, so sponsorship is set to become an increasingly valuable resource to the association as it attempts to marry the demands of a top-grade sporting product with the amateur ideals that it cherishes.

The arrival of Bank of Ireland and Guinness as sponsors of the hurling and football championship in 1994 coincided with a period of revolution for the association, with fresh counties coming through in both sports and live television popularising the games rather than threatening them, as had been long feared. In the eight years since, the All-Ireland championships have become a massive and highly lucrative sporting spectacle, generating millions of pounds for the association.

Legendary GAA commentator Micheál O'Muircheartaigh hosted yesterday's announcement and paid tribute to outgoing president McCague.

"He is the most honest man I ever met," he said, before telling a colourful yarn about loaning an antique book - entitled How to Play Gaelic Football and printed in 1913 - to the Monaghan man. Afterwards he realised that any book he had ever given on loan was never seen again and he feared he had parted with his gem permanently.

"But you could never ask a president of the GAA for your book back. A former president, maybe."

Every so often, McCague would bump into him at matches and promise that the book would be returned. And this summer, to O'Muircheartaigh's delight, he did, becoming the only man to pass the litmus test.

"Not," O'Muircheartaigh added, "that I have loaned books to all that many GAA presidents."

Meanwhile, Wexford hurler Liam Dunne has not rejoined the squad for pre-season training and is considering his future.

Having been part of the Wexford hurling scene for the past 14 seasons, Dunne has been an inspiration on many occasions but has also had problems with discipline, having been sent off in each of the past two seasons.

Dunne fell foul of referee Gerry Harrington in this year's Leinster final when Wexford were threatening to dismantle the Kilkenny challenge, but his most famous red card was in last year's All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary.

The Oulart-the-Ballagh player's sending-off along with Tipperary's Brian O'Meara led to weeks of controversy and O'Meara missed his county's All-Ireland success.

Last year Dunne took a lengthy break before been persuaded back into the panel by then manager Tony Dempsey and he played in the league and championship campaigns.

Dunne is still open-minded on his playing situation. "I'm in a real quandary at the moment. I just don't know but as it stands at the present I have not returned to pre-season training.

"Things have not gone as I would have liked over the past two seasons which is making it more difficult but I just don't know if I will stick around for another season. I'll meet with (new Wexford manager) John Conran and the selectors in the new year and take it from there, but my mind is in a real quandary as to my inter-county future."

Conran said that other veteran players like Larry O'Gorman and Larry Murphy are still available for consideration, but All Star full-back Darragh Ryan looks set to miss the entire league campaign.

Ryan is recovering from a second cruciate knee operation. He has been ruled out of the league, with considerable doubts also over his availability for the opening-round championship outing against Offaly.