Players chief Tom Parsons says the GAA is at ‘an important juncture’ where its amateur status is concerned, suggesting that failure to provide a ‘value proposition’ for players now could ultimately lead to revolt.
Just 59 percent of county players said in a 2024 survey conducted by the Gaelic Players Association that they were ‘content with the amateur status’, significantly down from 71 percent in 2023.
Speaking at the launch of a report conducted by the GPA which revealed that ‘individual players incur an average net expense of EUR4,602′ for playing for their counties, Parsons said it is vital that the government and the governing bodies take steps to improve the situation.
“A lot more needs to be done and my fear is that the next generation, five or 10 years, that if we don’t catch up and really look at the value proposition for players, then it would be awful to look back in 10 years’ time and say, ‘How did we lose that cultural heritage, where did we lose that, why did players revolt and decide to stop playing?’” said Parsons.
“We have an opportunity now with the government and the governing bodies to really look at the value proposition and to ensure that players think, ‘Yeah, I’m thriving in my career, there’s an investment in player development, an investment in player welfare, there’s a really good bursary programme, there’s a meaningful expense system and we’re treated equally and fairly, everything is transparent’. I think we really need to look at that.”
GPA head Parsons was speaking at the launch of Indecon International report ‘Assessment of economic and social impacts of inter-county Gaelic football, camogie and hurling players in Ireland’ which found that, compared to five years ago, players are EUR1,499 worse off annually as a result of their inter-county activity.
Players are also ‘losing out on EUR3,500 annually in potential overtime earnings’ with the overall hit to their yearly salary priced at EUR5,200.
Parsons gave a personal example of receiving a EUR1,900 government grant for playing for Mayo in 2008 and said that the figure for 2023, the year explored in the report, was EUR1,471.
“Look at the carded athletes, the Olympic athletes, that’s increased by 200% over that period,” he noted of corresponding funding.
Parsons also pointed out that a weekly nutrition rate for county players of EUR20 agreed in 2016 is still in place. “We all know that EUR20 in 2016 and EUR20 in 2025 is very different,” he said.
The GPA is currently in negotiations with the GAA regarding the funding it receives from Croke Park, and the report will inevitably buttress their argument for greater resourcing.
Parsons said it’s about ‘fairness’ for county players who should be able to arrive at a ‘net zero’ cost for representing their county. Linking it back to the amateur status issue, Parsons claimed that players will ultimately start to think, ‘If I’m going to give so much, what’s the return?’
He believes it’s important to look after players’ needs now and not be left with a much bigger problem further down the line. “If we want to protect the amateur status in 10 years’ time, this is an important juncture where the government and the governing bodies really need to look at, how can we create a value proposition where players are net zero?” said the former Mayo midfielder.
“So, it’s not costing them. So, it’s net zero and we’ve created an environment where there’s an investment in their careers, their education is thriving. For example, that student athletes don’t have to have a part-time job in a bar on a Saturday night if they’re going to be playing in front of 82,000 people in Croke Park.”
Parsons suggested pooling the money generated from sponsorship logos on the sleeves of jerseys and ring-fencing it for player welfare.
He also responded to criticism from various provincial councils of the GPA’s role in having pre-season competitions postponed for 2025, and the issue of some inter-county teams still apparently returning to collective training before the agreed December 7 date.
He said the GPA had ‘evidence’ of various teams breaching the rules ‘but not facts’ and that they will ‘do a full review after the league’.
On GAA Director General Tom Ryan’s remarks last week that there is ‘a gathering mood to shuffle the (All-Ireland) finals back by a week or two’ into August, Parsons said this would require ‘a mandate from players’.
“I think what would be a disaster is reinstating the pre-season competitions, stretching to August, putting more load on players again, taking three steps backwards,” he said. “The key stakeholder here has to be the players that are involved in this.”
Parsons said that pushing the All-Ireland finals back into August would mean a later start to the National Leagues. “If we want a seven-month window and if you want to stretch to August, then you’ll need your National League starting the end of February or the start of March and players returning to training in January,” he said.