FORMER ALL-IRELAND winning manager John O’Mahony has welcomed the publication of yesterday’s GAA discussion document on Amateur Status and Payment to Team Managers.
Now a government TD, he supported the option in the document suggesting that senior inter-county managers be paid and took issue with what he characterised as “pejorative depictions” of them.
“Managers within the GAA are often looked down on and have been mentioned in the same context as cancer (GAA president Christy Cooney described ‘payment to managers’ as ‘a cancer running through our organisation’) but any GAA person will have noticed the greater professionalism within the association and the number of people employed by it.
“Croke Park staff has grown significantly and there’s good reason for that so I don’t understand why inter-county managers are expected to exist on mileage although it’s nearly a full-time job.
“The motivation of nearly all managers is the desire to win and be successful, not to make money. Why not legitimise payments to managers and bring transparency to it? I would be in favour of that.
“There’s not too many millionaires from managing inter-county teams. I’ve heard it said about particular managers that they’re very mercenary but I haven’t met one who’d swap an All-Ireland for hundreds of thousands.”
Former GAA president Nickey Brennan made a submission to the association’s director general Páraic Duffy during the compiling of the discussion paper and brings a wealth of experience to bear on the issue having both played with and managed Kilkenny before his administrative career, which saw him sitting on the 2002 Strategic Review Committee as well as 1997s Amateur Status Subcommittee.
Brennan says that the landscape has changed considerably in the past 15 years. “It has. The profile and intensity of the inter-county game has become far greater and in so far as the document recognises the increasingly pressurised role of the manager I’d concur with it. But the important thing is that the document, which is very fair and comprehensive, stimulates a debate on its options and lets people bring forward other options if they want.”
Although Duffy includes in his survey of the arguments a caution about the effect that payment to managers might have on demands that players also be paid, Brennan says that the Gaelic Players Association has accepted that pay-for-play is not on the agenda and that despite the association’s expanding payroll, it remains staunchly amateur.
“We don’t have the capacity to support professional games and the GPA accepted that in the agreement with Croke Park. The GAA prides itself on the contribution made by its voluntary membership, which are responsible for the vast bulk of its activities.”
Whereas Duffy presents three options – maintain the status quo, enforce more vigorously the rule on amateurism and the making of structured payments to county managers – he makes it clear that he sees no merit in the first one and claims disinterest as to which of the other two is eventually recommended.
He does, however, present, amongst others, the argument that “a formal scheme of regulated payments to managers, if strictly applied and monitored, and containing severe penalties for transgressions, could bring an end to unregulated payments”.
In examining the possible methods of paying managers, Duffy lists the main four models in the GAA: welfare-based as with the player grants, expenses-based, on foot of invoices and straightforward employee status. He enters the caveat that although the latter three are the most obvious they would all carry tax implications, which would have to be addressed.
The paper also expresses caution about the consequences of adopting options two and three and proposes a safeguard.
“If the GAA were to decide on the implementation of either of the schemes outlined in Options 2 or 3, it would have to do everything necessary to ensure its strict application. The GAA’s record on enforcement of its own decisions has not always been exemplary. For this reason, a national full-time Compliance Officer would have to be appointed.”
In the conclusion to the document, Duffy again reiterates the need for the GAA to act on the matter. “But neither cynicism nor resignation is a tenable response for the GAA, particularly in an organisation that would not be the important force it is in Ireland were it not for a strong dose of idealism and dynamism running through its veins. The inescapable fact that all members of the GAA must face is that doing nothing about the issue does not constitute a viable policy; it is simply avoiding the issue.”
GAA DISCUSSION DOCUMENT: Main points
Option one: Maintain the status quo. Not recommended – "There is a strong case to be made that Option 1 is not a viable option for the association."
Option two: Implement fully the association's existing policy, rules and guidelines on amateur status by establishing a registration and audit body to monitor managerial appointments.
Option three: Permitting regulated payment for senior intercounty managers but subject to the scrutiny of a registration and audit body as proposed in option two.
A term of any agreement under option three would oblige managers to disclose any additional payment from outside sources.
Payments to club managers to be prohibited and structures established for the training of managers to facilitate clubs to appoint from within their membership.
Meeting of county officials next Saturday to consider the document.
Appointment of a working group to take submissions and present proposals.
The full discussion document on Amateur Status and Payment to Team Managers is online at irishtimes.com/sports
