ISC sees difficulties with grants

The Irish Sports Council (ISC) have warned the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) that any potential Government grant scheme for intercounty players would have to wait until 2007 "at the earliest".

In their first formal response to the issue, the ISC also suggested the GPA were over-simplifying the idea of such a grant, and, more importantly, none of the necessary groundwork for their administration has even been considered.

So far the ISC have taken a back seat in the debate, for obvious reasons. Without formal approval to instigate the grant scheme from either the GAA or the Government, their hands are tied.

Following their egm at the weekend, the GPA presented a list of six demands they wish to pursue with the GAA, the first of which called on Croke Park "to endorse the Government grants scheme" and to "formally lobby the Government for immediate implementation of the same".

Even if the Government and the GAA agree to formally back the scheme, however, the ISC are then left with the complicated task of developing a fireproof system of administering the grants, while also being aware of the potential for several other sporting associations to follow suit.

"We accept that the basic concept of a player grant would be administered through us," said Paul McDermott, spokesman for the ISC. "But nothing at all has been decided on the way this might happen.

"So the idea of having these grants in place for 2006 is definitely not a runner. First of all, we don't have any budget allocated, and straight away that rules out anything for this year. There is the possibility of the grants being retrospective, but that opens up a whole other door of administration problems.

"We also have to ask ourselves how this is going to run with the rest of the sporting community in Ireland. If we're asked to do it, we've no problem doing it, but it would be very complicated in administration terms. So realistically we'd be talking about early 2007, at the earliest. And even still that's only guessing. The bottom line is there's nothing we can do until we get the clearance from both the GAA and the Government about how and when to proceed with this."

It's over a year now since the GPA started focusing on such grants, which would average less than €2,000 per player a year, involving around 2,000 players, with an annual cost of around €3.6 million to the Exchequer.

The blueprint for the scheme is straightforward, and involves three levels of grants (€2,500, €1,750 and €1,000), depending on the team's progress in the championship, or in hurling, the tier of championship in which the team is competing.

After that things are a lot less straightforward. Only the ISC, it seems, are fully aware of the extensive list of difficulties not just in organising and administrating the grants, but also the way other sports would view them.

Yesterday, for example, the Irish hockey and basketball associations confirmed they would be closely watching the outcome of the GPA claims for a players' grant. While the ISC's international carding scheme does offer grant aid to individual athletes, it doesn't provide for any team compensation on the level the GPA are looking for.

Many of the ISC's concerns are self-explanatory. Supporting GAA players only could be seen to be gender biased, as the women's football association have pointed out: "It would be seen to be discrimination if the grants were solely for men," said women's football president Geraldine Giles last month. "If it ever happened, then I don't see a situation whereby grants could be given just to men and not women."

For the past two years the ISC have been carrying out an extensive review of their high-performance grants scheme, essentially by asking themselves the question whether they actually work. The number of athletes receiving direct aid has dropped dramatically last year as the ISC start to seek a better return on their investment, and the idea of direct grant aid being their best investment would also apply in the case of the GAA players.

The most obvious problem in administering an intercounty grant is the constant turnover of players, which, according to the Sports Council, makes for a "moving target". Then there is the question of how the grants will be handed out, and whether it's through Croke Park, the county boards, the GPA or even directly to the players themselves.

While the ISC has had some informal talks with the Government and GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell, they are also being cautious about taking what could be seen as the first step towards pay-for-play. All this means they aren't even sure yet which of their departments will pursue the grant scheme if it is given the go ahead.

"We are talking about a totally different grant scheme," added McDermott. "And we can't automatically assume we'll be handing out grants on behalf of the GAA which is a cash-rich association. If the GAA and the Government agree to this, then obviously we will try to find a way of doing it. Nothing is insurmountable."

The GPA did receive a boost yesterday when GAA president Seán Kelly reiterated his support for the idea of a players grant, while incoming president Nickey Brennan, who will meet the GPA on the issue on May 2nd, has also announced his intention to address the issues of players' welfare generally at congress next month. 1 How and when the grants will be distributed - to the GAA, the county boards, the GPA or the individual players?

2 Can they be administered on a 32-county basis? Agreement still has to be reached with the Northern Ireland Sports Council.

3 Would it open the door to more player transfers as they move to the higher-grant counties?

4 Who would determine the 30-man county panel liable for grant aid, and when?

5 Would the Irish Sports Council be opening the door to similar claims from other sporting associations?

Debbie Massey, CEO Basketball Ireland:

"In some instances, athletes of ours would sacrifice huge amounts of time, energy and opportunity for overtime in work, so if it did come into play for intercounty footballers and hurlers we would have to look at it in the context of our athletes.

"The Sports Council doesn't regard basketball as high performance. That means a sport with medal potential, be it at European, World or Olympics. Therefore when it comes to getting our funding from the Sports Council we get a certain amount for our 10 national teams, but we don't get anything out of the high-performance pot."

Paul Varian, CEO Irish Hockey Association: "We have men's and women's teams representing Ireland at the highest level, from the World Championships to Olympic Games. Our women's team are ranked 13th in the world. In many instances they have to partly fund those trips out of their own pocket, and also use up all their holiday time.

"While we have 41,000 registered hockey players in Ireland, right now we would see any potential for grant aid limited to our international teams. But I expect the Sports Council are aware that if they take this step with the GPA they are opening themselves up to similar approaches from other sports."