GAA to consider managerial payments

GAA:Remunerating inter-county managers is one of the options laid out in the GAA discussion document on Amateur Status and Payment to team managers, prepared by association director general Páraic Duffy and released this morning.

The long-awaited paper, originally presented to the GAA management committee 14 months ago, tackles the problem of irregular payments to managers and coaches by outlining three options; maintenance of the status quo; cracking down on such payments; or permitting structured and monitored payment.

Duffy is at pains to point out that whereas he clearly doesn’t favour the first option, he is disinterested in whether the association chooses option two or three.

Option three is proposed with the proviso that all payments to club managers and coaches should continue to be prohibited by the rule book. It is also suggested that county boards become more involved in the fundraising activities of supporters’ clubs and private benefactors in order to curb the incidence of under-the-counter payments.

The document has been sent to county officials - chair, secretary and treasurer - inviting them to a meeting on Saturday at which the document will be discussed.

Following that, the paper envisages a) the establishment of a Working Group to oversee the formulation of an official GAA policy on the issue of unregulated payments to managers and management teams, b) a call to units and members of the Association for written submissions to the Working Group based on the discussion in this document, c) the evaluation of these submissions by the Working Group and d) the formulation of a firm set of proposals by the Working Group.