On Soccer: There will be a good deal of hard talking between the interested parties before the first rugby or soccer international is played at Croke Park, but it does seem unthinkable that, after the political shift evidenced by Saturday's vote on Rule 42, neither game will be played there because the rent is too high, writes Emmet Malone

GAA president Seán Kelly suggested as much yesterday when he made it clear that he did not see money as being the most important issue. In the light of Saturday's significant gesture towards them, the suits at Merrion Square and Lansdowne Road would do well to bear his comments in mind, at least until they have a figure officially quoted to them from their opposite numbers over at Jones's Road.

Whether all of Ireland's football matches are staged at the ground is another thing, and prominent figures on both sides of the debate have raised a number of practical issues - from floodlighting to the objections by residents - which could be major obstacles whenever negotiations get started.

But the fact that the vote was passed with the required majority at all is a hugely positive development for Irish sport. Whether delegates backed the proposal on the basis of the money it might bring to the association, a conviction that no national team of ours should be forced to play their games in Britain, or a simple wish to make an outstanding facility available to others is of secondary importance really when so many were prepared to sacrifice such a long-cherished principle.

If there was a negative in all of what went on it was that such a significant minority within the organisation remained determined to portray rugby and football as bitter rivals whose progress must be opposed even when the GAA have more than matched any sporting organisation in the country for vibrancy and self-confidence.

By just about every measure - attendances, participation rates and revenues - the association is in good shape and can look to the long-term future with confidence. More baffling, though, is the failure to see that far from rugby and soccer being the enemies, they should be seen as allies in the battle to win over children and retain the interest of adults who find an increasing number of easier but much less rewarding distractions in modern Ireland.

Last year's ESRI report, Sports Participation and Health Among Adults in Ireland, touched upon the extent of the problem. Among its findings were:

1. A fifth of the adult population said they have never participated in any sport.

2. A third of those in the 18 to 29 age group said they are too busy to take part in any sport.

3. Among those who do participate, the average age for dropping out of sport is just 25 for men and 23 for women.

4. Just 32 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds participate regularly (that's once a month or more for the purposes of this study) in sport that requires "moderate to hard" effort.

5. When walking is excluded, those in the lowest socio-economic groups are about half as likely to participate in sport as those from the professional classes.

It's depressing stuff, although with funding having increased substantially over the past decade all of the major sports organisations are at least getting the chance now to rise to the increasingly diverse challenge they face.

Still, there is recognition within the Department of Sport as well as within the Sports Council that the approach to capital grant funding during the last decade has been too scattered, with the money spent on facilities not producing anything like the return that might be achieved because clubs are competing against each other and facilities are being replicated.

There is a clear need for more co-operation at local level, and that is going to require action from the various organisations' leaderships.

Regional and area sports centres which would provide shared facilities such as dressingrooms, high-quality pitches and social areas for a wide range of sports, represent the best way to invest public money in a co-ordinated fashion, but they require a will on the part of those involved in the rival associations to work together. While there has undoubtedly been the sort of bigotry and prejudice that hinder progress in this sort of area on all sides, the fact remains that over the course of its history the GAA has, institutionally at least, been far more guilty of both than either the IRFU or the FAI.

Saturday's vote suggests that attitudes within the organisation have come a long way and huge credit is due to Kelly for the way he handled what was clearly a huge desire at grassroots level for change.

In time, however, the outcome of this Rule 42 debate might be remembered as having been really historic not because the national rugby and soccer teams played a few games each at Croke Park but because it signalled a fundamental shift in attitude and heralded the beginning of a new era when the organisations that should be working with, rather than against, each other finally began to see the light.