PLAYERS PARTICIPATING in the forthcoming Munster hurling and Leinster senior football finals will not be conducting TV interviews before or after the games.
The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) have upped the ante in their quest for official recognition by instructing their players not to talk to RTÉ and TV3 in the build-up to the glamour ties or after the games themselves on July 12th.
GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell has reportedly grown frustrated with the lack of co-operation from the GAA on the issue of official recognition for the players’ group, which has been sought since its inception 10 years ago.
Top-ranking GPA officials recently met GAA president Christy Cooney and director general Páraic Duffy for fresh talks on the impasse. However, it is understood a GPA deadline for an official response from Croke Park has passed and Farrell feels he has no option but to act.
The GPA have decided to target areas in which revenue is generated on the back of players, with the first phase of action aimed at TV rights and the GAA’s official championship partners.
The GPA have stressed that strike action is not an option at this time and have promised top players their preparations for championship matches will not be affected.
The GPA have been promised co-operation from Munster hurling finalists Waterford and Tipperary, while Farrell will speak with the Leinster football finalists after they are revealed this weekend.
Pre- and post-match TV interviews have been ruled out in what will come as a real blow to RTÉ and TV3, who hold the rights to broadcast the Munster hurling and Leinster football finals respectively.
The broadcasters will also be affected by the absence of preview material from players and this will prove problematic with special programming planned around the GAA’s 125 celebrations.
The Road to Croker, Take Your Point and The Championship are some of the other RTÉ programmes affected, while on July 5th, a 90-minute live RTÉ TV special looking at the Munster hurling championship will be conspicuous by the absence of representatives from this year’s finalists.
Players may still speak to the print media if they so wish, while it is understood the GPA will arrange their own press conferences for the written press only prior to both provincial finals.
Meanwhile, the imposition of discipline in the fall-out from the controversial Ulster football quarter-final between Derry and Monaghan continues to prove elusive as both county boards who were charged by the Central Competitions Control Committee with “disruptive conduct by players (not causing the premature termination of a game)” were successful before the Central Hearings Committee.
The GAA yesterday announced the charges against both counties, who had declined to accept recommended punishments from the CCCC and opted for hearings, were cleared by the CHC, which found the charge “not proven” in either case.
