Closed-door debate on managers’ payments

A discussion document on the GAA’s amateur status and payments to team managers will be debated at a behind-closed-doors ­meeting of county officials this Saturday.
According to GAA officials, “This is a discussion paper only and is not a set of proposals. An open, frank and honest debate must take place within the GAA before firm proposals to deal with the question of unregulated payments to managers and others can be brought forward.”
The document has been written with two objectives – to stimulate debate/reflection on an issue that can no longer be ignored and to benefit from the ideas that will emerge so as to allow the association to formulate a policy on the issue of payments to managers and management teams.
Any policy that will emerge from the upcoming debate will, in the view of officials, need to be consistent with the association’s amateur ethos, be consistent with the current accepted practice of paying for the provision of certain services, recognise the important contribution of managers to the success of the games and help resolve a problem that, if not confronted openly, will continue to leave the association open to the charge of benefiting from and being complicit in a double standard.
There will be no public comment on the paper during the engagement process.