Delegates favour ‘structured ­payments’

A discussion on payment to managers arose at last week’s board meeting  “I can’t figure out why the GAA didn’t take the bull by the horns and say ‘lads this is what we are going to do, end of story’.

It would not be an issue if guidance was given. In any organisation, a CEO directs what happens right down the line. It’s an awful pity from a GAA point of view that that dictat isn’t given right down the line. It wouldn’t take long before things would be sorted out fairly fast,” said O’Curry’s chairman Michael Curtin.
At the outset, O’Callaghan’s Mills delegate Noel O’Driscoll asked the chairman if he had spoken at a recent meeting in Croke Park on this issue and if his comments were on his own behalf or on behalf of the clubs. O’Neill replied that county chairmen and secretaries were invited to Croke Park for a briefing on this issue and were then asked to go back and get the views of their clubs.
According to O’Driscoll, “The ideal would be not to pay inter-county managers but it’s happening left, right and centre across the country. It’s time to regulate it,” he said before telling of meeting someone who was offered €25,000 to manage a club team. “There is a lot of time, expense and enjoyment too involved. It’s time to get real. It’s not going to go away. They should be paid,” the O’Callaghan’s Mills delegate said, before telling the meeting that he had managed in this county “at every level from U-14 through to being a selector at senior level. I did it because I enjoyed it. It was part of my social life.”
Doonbeg’s Michael Neenan said he had a concern “as to where we are going. Does Croke Park realise that we are all volunteers? They are fully paid. We should send a clear message to them that the county board can look after themselves. Clubs are made up of volunteers and only for them, there would be no GAA”.
According to John Lynch, St Senan’s, Kilkee, “Managers get expenses and not payment. We don’t pay managers.”
“There are too many on payrolls and it’s the wrong time for this,” Tubber chairman Michael Lee told the meeting. “They should get proper expenses. The GAA needs to look at itself in a serious way. Maybe the recession might bring a little bit of common sense to where we are. Clubs will not survive and no way should we pay any more”
According to Ruan delegate Michael O’Regan, “No one has any objection to the payment of legitimate expenses.”
Clooney-Quin’s PJ Cunningham said, “We have to regulate it. It is happening.” He added, “A man asked for a four-figure sum to get our team to the quarter-final and after that there would be another figure.”
Parteen’s PJ Doherty asked “what does expenses cover” to which chairman Michael O’Neill replied “mileage and telephone expenses”.
Clarecastle’s Bernard Hanrahan said, “It’s up to every club and the county board. Managers have to be paid and there is no point in saying they are not because they are. Croke Park shouldn’t dictate to us.”
Munster council delegate John O’Sullivan explained, “In the document issued by the ard stiurathoir, there are three options. It can be left as it is, it can be policed or county boards can make the senior manager an employee of their board.” He added there is a proposal that from next year, clubs will be asked to provide the RSI number of their senior club manager.
Clonlara’s Michael Hogan said he was worried about the future of clubs. “We will get no one to take on positions in the clubs,” he said. Development officer John Fawl told the ­meeting, “We must get leadership from the top.”
“The biggest problem we are facing at the moment is unemployment and emigration and that is the area we should be giving our attention to,” chairman O’Neill said before the majority of delegates opted in favour of “structured payments with proper expenses”.