GPA chief Tom Parsons has issued the GAA an ultimatum by insisting the pre-pandemic players’ charter must be restored.
Players are weighing up their next move after refusing to engage in media interviews around last weekend’s Allianz Football League games with an escalation in the offing if the standoff with the GAA isn’t resolved by the coming weekend, when there are full rounds of fixtures in both codes.
The GAA has agreed to restore the 65c mileage rate after it was dropped to 50c during the pandemic but the crux of the issue now surrounds the number of training sessions/games to which the charter will apply. The GAA says that it will only provide a subvention for a maximum of four sessions/games a week, with the local county board having to pick up the slack thereafter.
Tonight on Off The Ball, Parsons said that the requisite number of sessions at a given time of year should be determined in consultation with experts in sports science but that in the meantime the 2019 charter - which allowed for any number of sessions - should be fully restored.
“The 2019 agreement has to go back,” he commented. “That’s a definite.”
He expressed hope that a resolution can be reached in the coming days so that there won’t be any further forms of protests around the coming weekend’s games but added: “The players will continue to air their frustrations in different manners. This weekend was a symbol of that, not getting access to players in terms of getting their post-match reflections or managers’ reflections.
“It just doesn’t sit well but players feel very strongly on this and they will take action and players are meeting regularly and they’re discussing it and hoping that the GAA will come back and whatever aspiration the GAA have in terms of how many sessions they’d like to land at a week, let’s work on a different initiative on the basis of player welfare and maybe we might land in the same place.
“I actually believe that we’ll land in the same place. I believe that for some periods of the year it might be five (sessions), in other periods four or three.
“We just can’t have a symbol of the players being in a control mechanism or a rate being negotiable for different counties.”
Elsewhere, GAA director general Tom Ryan sent a circular to county boards last night pointing out that “the sole difference between the 2022 charter, and the charter that was in place pre-Covid, is that the 65c per mile expense rate provided for in the new charter covers up to four collective training sessions/games per week only”.
He added: "The time commitment issue needs to be examined to ensure that our games are played in a way that enables players to continue to enjoy them and that is not damaging to other aspects of their lives.
"Counties need to reflect individually on what is being asked of players in this context. We are aware that the majority of panels only currently get together three or four times a week – however we are also aware that some do exceed this amount
"While we recognise that players are volunteers and that ultimately each county set-up is an independent entity, we cannot continue to fund bad practice with regard to player welfare.
"For that reason, while the GAA centrally will provide a subvention for up to four collective gatherings per week, the cost of mileage for anything in excess of this will be borne by individual counties."
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
