FEBRUARY 2002
www.celtic-connection.com
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GAA NEWS ROUND-UP
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By JOHN KEANE GAA ROW - New York and Sligo are scheduled to play in the first round of the Connacht Championship in New York in May and there has been a great deal of sniping back and forth over the fixture, especially from the Sligo side.
Most recently, Sligo manager Peter Forde has questioned whether New York should even be allowed to compete in the All-Ireland football and hurling competitions. His biggest complaint relates to Sligo's failure to have their May fixture put back to June to facilitate students and teachers on the Sligo panel who are not available in May.
PROPOSED GAA CHANGES -The report from the GAA's Strategic Review Committee was presented and includes radical recommendations to change the way Gaelic games are organized. Among the more controversial proposals are:
1. That Dublin be divided into two county boards with two county teams for football (North and South Dublin), but with hurling retaining the one county board and one county team;
2. That Central Council have the power to decide if Croke Park should be made available for non-GAA sporting events, but that other provincial GAA grounds should be retained exclusively for Gaelic Games;
3. That the GAA needs a second stadium in the Dublin area to host big GAA games like All-Ireland Quarter-Finals so as not to overuse Croke Park. This was seen as a not-so-subtle endorsement of
the "Bertie-Bowl," Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's proposed new Sports Stadium;
4. That Inter-County League teams should play 13-a-side starting in 2003 to see if that improves the game;
5. That each team be permitted six subs who can rotate in and out as often as they want, under the control of the Linesman;
6. That Ladies Gaelic Football, Camogie, Handball and Rounders all be brought under the GAA's umbrella rather than have them organized by separate organizations as at present;
7. That GAA players be allowed to keep 100% of product endorsement money, but that the GAA's amateur status be retained and that a pay-per-play culture not be permitted;
8. That no one GAA club should have a catchment area of more than 25,000 people in Dublin or other large urban areas, or more than about 5,000 people in rural areas;
9. That provincial councils should have greater powers to intervene in the running of individual count}- boards;
10. And that every club player be guaranteed a minimum of 20 games each year.
The proposals in the 260-page long report require approval at Congress before they take effect, and the expectation is that they will be debated and voted on at a Special GAA Congress that may be called for later in the year. Incidentally, anyone can download
off the Internet a current copy of the 2001 Playing Rules of Gaelic Football or Hurling. Go to www.gaa.ie and access the Hurling or Football page.
NORTH AMERICAN GAA - The
North American GAA County Board has established a committee to investigate the NACB Playoffs (the North American GAA Finals) as currently organized and to propose changes that will best enhance the presentation and promotion of Gaelic Games in the NACB area. The reason for the review is that the playoffs are becoming a victim of their own success and are getting almost too big to handle.
In the past decade, the number of teams participating in the Playoffs has quadrupled. At the 1993 NACB Playoffs in San Francisco, there were a total of 18 games in five grades of competition - Junior, Intermediate and Senior Men's Football, Senior Hurling and Ladies Football, and all the games were played on two fields.
In 2001 in San Francisco, there were a total of 39 adult games and 30 Minor games, a total of 69 games played over the three days, in nine adult and nine Minor grades of competition.
From requiring two playing fields to host the Playoffs in 1993, there, were six co-located fields in 2001 and all of them were needed. It is hoped the committee can make recommendations to help the organizing of the 2002 NACB Playoffs that are scheduled for Philadelphia on the Labor Day weekend, August 30-31 and September 1.
STADIUM IRELAND ON HOLD UNTIL AFTER IRISH ELECTION
DUBLIN - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has backed moves for Ireland to help host the 2008 European soccer championships finals along with Scotland. But he declared, "We need stadiums - we can't do it without them." His statement was a clear reference to the proposed Stadium Ireland which has been dubbed the "Bertie Bowl" by the Irish media.
Stadium Ireland is planned as an 80,000 seater stadium located in Abbotstown in west Dublin. However, after a critical report by an independent group of consultants, it is reported that Tanaiste Mary Harney will not give her backing to the £550 million Campus Ireland plan of which the national stadium is a key element.
The report is understood to be highly critical of parts of the project and questions the economic viability of the national stadium. It calls for further study of the cost implications and urges renewed consultations with the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Rugby Football Union about the kind of stadium capacity their organisations want.
Ireland's involvement in the Scottish bid for the 2008 European soccer championships finals depends on whether the Fianna Fail/ Progressive Democrats coalition Government can agree to build the controversial facility.
Ireland cannot automatically select Croke Park or any other GAA
stadium because it cannot guarantee the organization will agree to soccer being played on its grounds. Securing the finals would not only enhance Ireland's soccer prestige, it would mean a huge boost for the tourist industry, drawing in a good share of the 375,000 expected at the finals.
The Tanaiste had expressed her misgivings about the Sports Campus Ireland project in the summer and the Taoiseach agreed to her demands for the independent report. However, it is known that Harney is even more opposed to the project as a result of the review.
In addition, it is believed that as the next general election is now less than six months away, the Progressive Democrats are keen to emphasize their separate identity before the eyes of the electorate and, indeed, they have already made it abundantly clear that they are not prepared to entertain any possibility of pre-election pacts.
Their deep suspicion about the economic viability of the Sports Campus Ireland project, therefore, affords them an opportunity to stand apart from the wholehearted support for the idea within Fianna Fail.
Fine Gael has vehemently opposed the whole project and says that it will scrap the plan altogether if it gets into Government. It wants the money which would be spent on Abbotstown to be
used, instead, for the improvement of sports facilities throughout the country.
Labour is not as vehemently opposed to the project, although it is wary of the cost implications and believes there should be a scaling down in the size of the plans. While work on the new swimming pool which will be used for the Special Olympics in 2003 is under way at the Abbotstown site, a large question mark now hangs over the rest of the plan, until after the election.
Joint Euro 2008 Bid With Ireland?
The Scottish Executive has drawn back from financing a solo bid by Scotland to host the final stages of the Euro 2008 football competition. Instead, they have asked the Scottish Football Association to discuss a joint bid with Ireland in which Scotland would provide six stadiums and Ireland two. Even at this level, Scotland will have to come up with finance in the region of u50 to u70 million to cover the cost of two new stadiums. The two football associations - and governments - have just four weeks to come up with a deal before formal notice has to be given to the European governing body UEFA.
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