Makeover designed to give games 'new identity'

Branding proposals: The GAA are set to announce a new branding arrangement after extensive research into how the association and their games are perceived by the public.

The intention is to create a "new identity" for the GAA, starting from the coming championship.

An outline of the new branding will be made by GAA president Nickey Brennan and new director general Paraic Duffy next Tuesday, and will also go before GAA Congress in April.

This, however, is separate from the new championship sponsorship arrangements and the remaining championships television rights, which are still in the contract stage and won't be announced for a week or two.

According to Dermot Power, the GAA's commercial and marketing manager, the branding will see a revamp to various aspects of the association.

"This is quite a major exercise for us," he said, "and has involved some extensive research. We are talking about a new identity, including GAA logos and so on."

Power has been almost a year putting together the sponsorship and TV-rights packages, which, as well documented, will involve six new sponsors for the football and hurling championships. The long forms of these contracts have been sent out to enable agreements to be signed.

"We're at the contract stage, but this is still a long process," said Power. "It's quite complicated when you're sharing rights. The TV rights are also critical in those contracts. So it's not just a question of shaking hands on it. But we would hope to have agreed that in the next week or so."

Guinness are one of the sponsors certain of maintaining their interest in the hurling championship, with the likes of Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Ulster Bank and Toyota reported to be in the final mix. The national airline of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, have also come into the running as one of the sponsors of the hurling championship.

The six companies, three for each code, are expected to be worth a total of around €29.1 million to the GAA, with the reported pricing of the All-Ireland football championship sponsorship at €5.1 million per company for three years, and the hurling at €4.6 million.

Power has since said the terms of the agreements would vary, as the GAA does not want to have to renegotiate all contracts at the same time in future years.

The TV-rights package is linked to the sponsorship package and will be unveiled at the same time. Four of the five main live packages have still to be agreed, but TV3 and Setanta are already set to share the All-Ireland championship coverage with RTÉ for the first time.

Last December it was announced that TV3 had agreed to pay around €6 million for the number three package of live championship matches - but it's the top two packages that will bring in the big money, and probably bring the GAA's total media earnings over the next three years to more than €20 million.

Meanwhile, Saturday's meeting of the GAA's Central Council is expected to give the go-ahead for the resumption of the International Rules series with Australia.

Last week's talks between the GAA and AFL in Dubai resulted in a number of proposals being agreed to address the chronic indiscipline that brought about the suspension of the series in 2006.

Among the initiatives believed to be under consideration is the extension of any suspensions to cover players in their own game.

The Australian media has been widely speculating the resumption of the series, starting this autumn, when they would play hosts, with a promotional fixture between AFL club Collingwood and Dublin also taking place at the end of this season.

Finally, a statement released yesterday by the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), on behalf of the London Gaelic football squad, has claimed that overseas squads will be included in the Government awards scheme for inter-county players:

"Contrary to recent unsubstantiated reports, the GPA has reassured Exile players that they will be entitled to funding to help with the development of their squads and will not be excluded when the scheme is implemented following the conclusion of this year's championships."