THERE is a certain irony in the timing of the latest controversy involving expeditions of inter county players to New York because it comes a couple of weeks after the amateurism issue gained such prominence that the UAA appointed a committee to consider the matter.
It is in the United States that the regulations on amateurism have been most frequently breached and where pay for play - consistently disowned as an ambition by inter county players - has been commonplace for a long time.
The opportunity to earn some lavish expenses and have a weekend away has been regularly available, and whereas Croke Park cannot be expected to condone the practice, it turns a blind eye and facilitates it.
The whole system of weekend passes to play in New York is based on what is a rubber stamping procedure and the only limit on the numbers playing is the local rule that a maximum of three visiting players is permitted per team.
Breaching the rule is a matter of discipline for New York and the only thing that concerns the GAC is whether the players' authorisation forms are in order. Once over there, they can circumvent the three visitors rule by adopting aliases.
If there are to be suspensions arising out of the New York final earlier this month, it's hard to feel excessive sympathy for the players involved. The authorisation procedure is so straight forward that failure to observe it is evidence of staggering incompetence. Special pleading about the complexity of the provisions is nonsense.
The players involved will, should they be suspended, be seen as unfortunate because it is certain that they will not have been the only ones to have transgressed in this regard and sporadic enforcement of rules invariably leads to disgruntlement.
Anyway, what's the harm in allowing one of the few perks available to inter county players? What purpose is served by trying to restrict the transatlantic traffic in players?
One inter county captain made a fair point when he said privately that the few bob to be made in America was a kind of a safety valve on amateurism at home and provides some sort of an outlet for players to exploit the time they put into training and preparation.
Secondly, for the emigrant community in New York, the opportunity to see famous players from Ireland is something that provides a comforting link with home.
Against that, there is a case to be made for the playing community in the US, where players who commit themselves to the early stages of the season are jettisoned in favour of the migrant hordes whose numbers increase in line with the counties eliminated from the championships in Ireland.
But that is a matter for New York, which raises another problem - delegations to New York from the GAA to thrash out a solution to this recurrent problem.
As recently as last May, Noel Walsh and PJ McGrath, chairpersons of the Munster and Connacht Councils, flew out to address the issue together with local officials.
Everything went well and there appeared to be a meeting of minds. The problem is that it's not the GAA officials who put up the money to entice over star players. Club supporters with deep pockets are the sources of revenue and they are not within the GAA's effective control.
The choice before the GAA on the current matter is limited. The rules in Ireland are permissive enough, requiring the approval of club secretary, county secretary and Croke Park. This is more than needless bureaucracy as anyone with playing commitments at home obviously shouldn't be free to avoid them.
Given that these simple procedures were ignored, it's unlikely that the GAC can ignore the breach. Nor will they want to set a precedent encouraging players to admit to depressing levels of stupidity in order to beat the illegal playing rap.
The current regulation isn't that restrictive but the hard questions are down the road. Should Croke Park get involved in assisting New York to impose its three per team limit? If so, will the damage to the safety valve cause an explosion of player discontent and can Croke Park cope with that?
