Five men have been nominated to contest the GAA presidential election at this year's annual congress. The five nominees are PJ McGrath from Mayo, Sean Kelly from Kerry, Noel Walsh from Clare, Sean McCague from Monaghan and Albert Fallon from Longford. The winning candidate will take over the presidency from current president Joe McDonagh in April 2000 and will serve a four-year term. There are no surprises in the list of candidates, although there is no certainty that all five will allow their names to go forward. At a press conference in Croke Park yesterday, McDonagh said that he never considered the idea that he should go for a further term as president.

"It has not been the ordinary way for going about things within the GAA and it is a good thing that somebody new comes in after a period. I have put in place what I believe are good structures in the best interests of the association and I have every confidence in whoever succeeds me.

"We have had a wonderful period of exceptionally great competition on the fields in the GAA during the past few years and I sincerely hope that that will continue. We have had our problems like every other sporting body, but we have faced up to them and will continue to do so."

In regard to the development of Croke Park, GAA director general Liam Mulvihill said that the rebuilding programme was now well ahead of schedule and that it would be possible to accommodate a crowd of some 60,000 people for the Leinster hurling and football semi-finals in July.

"We have been able to make an arrangement with the building people to put the development forward to such an extent that we will be able to conduct our summer activities without any real disruption," he said.