Offaly report an €80,000 loss

THE OFFALY County Board has bucked the general trend of this year’s annual convention season and reported a loss of over €80,000, compared to a profit in 2009 of €100,000.

This evening’s convention in Tullamore has been postponed due to the bad weather, but accounts circulated yesterday reveal total income was down from €1,132,543 to €1,029,892, while expenditure rose from €1,034,320 to €1,111,597.

Players’ travelling expenses were up from €483,558 to €499,550, and team administration expenses increased from €86,064 to €100,696.

The year-end accounts would have shown a bigger deficit were it not for more controlled medical expenses, which were reduced from €66,913 to €48,004.

The trend elsewhere is of slight or indeed healthy profits and more carefully administered team expenses. Meath report a profit of €127,000 for the year, with intercounty team expenses remaining consistent, coming in at €452,000 compared to €469,000 in 2009.

However, the Cork County Board’s accounts showed intercounty team expenses had gone up in 2010 by almost five per cent to €1,572,365 from €1,501,875 in 2009 – but the increase is largely down to the added number of championship games the Cork senior football and hurling teams were involved in during the 2010 season.

Carlow have reported a surplus of €133,000 for the 2010 financial year, up by almost €100,000 on 2009 figures. Team expenses rose by €13,000, from €452,000 in 2009 to €465,000 this year, although a trip to London for a National Football League fixture is the main reason for the difference.

Louth also report a profit for the second successive year, with an overall surplus of €20,000. Income fell by over €32,000 in 2010 from last year’s figure of €769,270, but that was offset by a drop in overall expenditure.

In 2009, Louth spent €749,071 on “various items” and that figure dropped to €728,197 this year.

Finally, Westmeath have announced a drop of almost €150,000 in the preparation of their intercounty football teams this year, having spent €264,654 in 2010, down €148,694 from the 2009 figure of €413,618.

Overall, Westmeath’s income dropped by just over €73,000 in 2010, coming in at €567,846 compared to the 2009 figure of €640,875.