Business of Sport: Getting people to come forward and dedicate their time to a sports club is becoming harder, and our newly-developed litigious nature isn't helping matters either.
"Managers and coaches are the easiest target," says Niall O'Driscoll, CEO of the O'Driscoll O'Neil sports insurance firm, on those most vulnerable to claims in Irish sport.
Following on from last week's column on the effects "compensation culture" could have on the number of volunteers involved in sport, O'Driscoll, who is also secretary of St Joseph's Football Club, paints a worrying picture for clubs and sports organisations in which claims, costs and cases are spiralling.
"In 1998 there were 239 claims in soccer and just four years later in 2002 there were 1,061 - a 344 per cent increase. In Ireland, the average higher-award level claim is €19,000. In the UK it is £1,600," O'Driscoll explains.
All levels of sport are being affected by the cultural changes we are seeing. Coaches and managers are being threatened with legal action from parents if they don't like the way little Johnny is being spoken to, or if they think he is being pushed too much.
And of course, the issue of abuse is one that still haunts volunteers in sport.
In the last seven years there have been approximately six potential cases in soccer, reckons O'Driscoll, but it is an issue that still lingers. What is needed is a standard sex offenders list, he says, so that checks on possible managers and coaches can be carried out.
At the very basic level is a code of ethics so that all are aware of conduct that is regarded as unacceptable.
But it's not just coaches and managers that are suffering. Just witness the huge increase in insurance costs for the GAA, which have risen to €7.3 million each year. GAA and rugby have compulsory insurance schemes which, in the present climate, cost a fortune and appear to be increasing.
But O'Driscoll reckons it shouldn't be the organisations who bear the brunt of claims.
"The risk of protection should be on the player. It is not fair on associations to be expected to solve the problems.
"When you play sport you are putting yourself at risk, that is sport by its nature; why should your club or organisation be responsible for something that happens on a pitch? Once you provide duty of care and minimum cover for medical expenses, why should a club be obliged to do more?"
Compulsory insurance schemes are causing much of the financial woes in sport and one look at figures for amateur games reveal why.
It is estimated that, annually, it costs €700 to insure a GAA team and €450 for a soccer team, whereas you're looking at €9,000 in medical costs for a crucial ligament injury.
As for a possible minefield in the future, O'Driscoll says that claims against clubs or organisations in potential lost earnings could be a danger to sport.
Parents with talented kids who could have gone on to play in the Premiership and earn millions but fail to do so for whatever reason - injury, mental trauma, etc - are now looking to the courts for claims.
If managers are having to worry whether they raised their voices too high to the under-10 team, which caused trauma to a talented player who could have been the next Beckham, then the danger to sport is more grave than we think.
It can pay to play often
One programme that might catch the eye of Eircom League officials is a relatively new concept introduced into the NFL in America, called the Performance Based Pay (PBP) programme.
Implemented as part of the 2002 extension to the collective bargaining agreement, the purpose of the PBP programme was to establish a fund (with the money coming from league revenues) which primarily supplements salaries of players whose playing time is disproportionate to their compensation.
Each year, NFL players now receive PBP cheques in their post representing a season's worth of performances. While the PBP programme was created to help compensate for salary disparities, every player who trotted out onto the pitch in 2003 is eligible for some money.
Some, like, Brian Russell of the Minnesota Vikings, will pocket $114,000 while others like Jason Thomas of the Baltimore Ravens will get $63, having played in 0.1 per cent of the team's snaps.Rand McMichael of the Miami Dolphins commented: "The better you play, the more your playing time increases, and so does the PBP money. You want to be out on the field as much as possible."StockWatch
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"The spirit, the will to win and the will to excel - these are the things that endure and these are the qualities that are so much more important than any of the events that occasion them."
Kerr's talk of wage cap leaves players peaked
"Somewhere along the line somebody seems to have started the whole thing spiralling and it hasn't stopped since. "
So said Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr in reference to players' wages last week at the launch of the National League. But since when has he become the mouthpiece for club owners?
Kerr's comments hinting at a need for wage restraint has angered the players union, the PFAI.
"We are totally against any notion of wage restraint," says PFAI Chairman, Stephen McGuinness.
"Players only get what they deserve and what they are offered. It is the clubs who need to be realistic. If they were as professional as the players we wouldn't be in the present position the league finds itself in."
Kerr admitted to being "shocked" at some of the wages that the top league players are on but, says McGuinness, if two or three players' wages are being held up as examples, the wrong perception is being given.
"The reality is most players are still part-time footballers and on average - including full-time, part-time and the two divisions - the average weekly wage of an Eircom League player would be just €350."
And while Kerr reminisces about the days of total wage bills at St Patrick's Athletic of just £1,100 in 1990, clubs' demands on players have increased.
A PFAI survey has found that 80 per cent of those polled have had their training increased in the last three years.
The reality is that footballers - like managers - are employees like any other. As McGuinness puts it, "If you look for a wage cap on players where does it end? Should we ask plumbers or electricians to have their wages capped?"
Or how about starting with FAI officials?
