The announcement that 10 leading inter-county GAA players have concluded an endorsement deal worth £50,000, outside the framework approved by the GAA, has caused widespread reverberations within the association.
Under the deal, each player is obliged to make a maximum of four promotional appearances over the next year for the sponsors, the Marlborough Group, a recruitment company.
The players involved are Brian Corcoran (Cork), Brian Lohan (Clare), Brian Whelahan (Offaly), Paul Flynn (Waterford), Jarlath Fallon (Galway), Derek Duggan (Roscommon), Peter Canavan (Tyrone), Stephen Melia (Louth) and two whose identities have been kept secret as both have matches this weekend. They are believed to be D.J. Carey, the Kilkenny hurler, who has been a strong supporter of the Gaelic Players' Association, which negotiated the deal, and a Dublin footballer. Officially, the GAA is reserving its position on the challenge to its authority from the GPA. However, Jarlath Burns, the chairman of the GAA's official players' committee, criticised the deal, saying: "It would appear that those who have claimed in the past that the GPA is elitist and only representative of a greedy minority may well have been proven right today."
The deal brings to a head the ongoing row between the GAA and the GPA, which represents 450 inter-county players.
The official GAA model provides for the player involved in the endorsement to receive 50 per cent, with the other half being divided among his team-mates, a hardship fund and the player's county board. The deal announced yesterday involves 80 per cent going to the player and 20 per cent to the GPA.
Mr Sean McCague, president of the GAA, said: "I was not apprised by the GPA of their proposal and am not prepared to comment until I have studied its full content and implications."