How much do you think Christy Cooney's salary is for his three year tenure as president of the GAA?
Well, according to Joe Brolly in last week's TitleGaa supplement in the Irish Mail On Sunday, the recently installed leader of the so-called greatest amateur sporting organisation in the world gets a cool half million euro for the total duration.
I
f that is true then, as the Derryman says, is it any wonder the GAA are sensitive to allegations of hypocrisy because, although they talk the amateur talk, there are few ostensible signs of this.
'I can understand why this has been agreed, but how does it sit alongside the amateur ethos? He is after all fulfilling an ambassadorial role' wonders the Belfast-based barrister of Cooney's pay deal.
That's all buried away in the middle of an article entitled 'Players must now decide if loyalty is to the jersey or to a free fleece' and, obviously, that all relates to the GPA and the grants scenario.
unprincipled
He rightly opens the issue by saying that the importance of the grants for the PGA has never been the 'few bob in the players' pockets' as described by one of their number, but the historic establishment of a link between playing and paying. He insists the grants scheme has always been unprincipled, which explains the head-scratching on the part of all sides to come up with a reason why the government would introduce it.
The All-Itreland medal winner, who famously blew bubbles to everybody when he scored the odd goal for the Oak Leaf men, described as 'gobblegook' the explanation that the grants were 'state recognition of the contribution that inter-county players make in terms of the culture and heritage of this countrym, and the enhancement of the social fabric of Irish society'.
He scoffed at the notion that footballers wake up and say to themselves 'I must get up and make a positive contribution to Irish cultural life', describing this as risible.
Because they didn't want it to look like 'a few bob in the players' pockets' the GPA summoned their PR men and the grants became 'expenses'. When the question 'what expenses?' was posed at a GPA press conference, it prompted the memorable answer: 'Well, all sorts of things. For example, if a player had to hire a baby-sitter while he was training or at a match.' But what if he doesn't have a baby?
He revealed that on the run-up to their infamous strike threat, the consensus amingst Club Derry supporters was 'that we would withdraw our funding from the senior team if players participated'.
And he predicted that there'll be problems ahead. 'When the GPA in due course renounces its promise and comes agitating for the grants to be paid by the GAA, the players will have to decide where their loyalties lie - to a free fleece, or to the jersey?'
Let's hope it does't come to that, but I fear that Brolly has got it spot on about the grants this time.
