CPA head hits out at ‘disrespectful’ GAA president on fixtures

Eoghan Cormican T

CPA head hits out at ‘disrespectful’ GAA president on fixtures

The head of the Club Players Association, Micheál Briody, has accused GAA president John Horan of being disrespectful and “playing to the audience” when calling on the CPA, during his Congress speech, to bring forward their plans to improve the fixtures calendar.

CPA chairman Briody has confirmed he will seek clarification from GAA director general Tom Ryan and president John Horan as to why the latter made the comments when the CPA have been working with Croke Park for the past two months on tackling the fixtures mess.

Addressing delegates in Wexford over the weekend, Horan called on the CPA to submit “a more detailed sample of how they would propose to fill the blank canvass on fixtures which they talk about”.

Briody, present at Congress, was surprised by this request for solutions given he has been engaging with Tom Ryan behind the scenes in recent weeks and the submission, by the CPA, of three detailed fixture proposals to the director general in late January. The CPA chairman said he will continue to work with Croke Park despite Horan’s “moment of weakness”.

“We were told he was aware that Tom Ryan and I have been engaging,” said Briody.

“Just completely surprised that he said what he did given all that is going on behind the scenes. The CPA has been very quiet over the last two to three months. You haven’t heard from us because we are engaging behind doors and trying to get solutions in place.

“Going into Congress, we were letting things play out behind the scenes. We were very surprised that one of those persons we are engaging called out that we haven’t submitted plans and he wants to see solutions when we did that about a month ago.

“I think he was just playing to his audience and in a moment of weakness, forgot the bigger political picture. We will seek clarification on it this week. We were definitely not of the view that they were waiting for us to submit more plans. They haven’t given any reaction to the other ones.”

Briody refused to comment on how matters were progressing in bringing about the necessary change which will improve the calendar for the club player and felt somewhat let down the GAA president had not done likewise.

“I have committed, as part of the process, that I wouldn’t talk publicly about it. I’m not going to dishonour that. We felt it was slightly dishonoured at the weekend, but we’ll let it pass, we are bigger than that.”

On solving the fixture crisis, he said: “The first thing you have got to do is create the forum and the pathway for when you do create the blueprints. We have held our blueprints back, we are not going to put up plans. The way we feel it has to be done is, first, you have to have a route with the plan, a route to get it passed at Congress. That is the first step and is what we are talking about behind the scenes.”

The Central Fixtures Analysts Committee (CFAF) recommended at Congress bringing forward the All-Ireland senior club finals from March 17 to early January. It also suggested Central Council provide financial assistance to cross-county club competitions being organised during May/June to energise club activity during this period of heavy inter-county action.

“That is just looking at it in piecemeal. That is taking one thing and changing it. That is what got us into the issue we are in. We have to look at absolutely everything and then try and fix it. Going from March to January is still not enough for the club player. We have proven it can be done within the calendar year if you look at everything holistically on a blank canvass.”

Although insisting their recommendations don’t go far enough, Briody saw it as telling that up to 50 delegates left the room during the presentation by the CFAF.

“People maybe felt that because they didn’t have to vote, they didn’t have to be present in the room for the presentation. The whole setup of Congress is very poor. It is a complete waste of resources that you have brought delegates, Central Council, and past presidents together, but yet you don’t have any meaningful engagement or debate on the big issues facing the GAA. There was nothing about fixtures at Congress, there was nothing on the television deal, and there was very little about Páirc Uí Chaoimh. A very, very poor agenda but no different from recent years.”

Meanwhile, the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) described Congress’ decision to shoot down their request to be represented on the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) as “very disappointing” and “an opportunity missed”.

Just 15% of delegates backed the motion in what was a resounding defeat for the official inter-county players body. They will now “examine other routes for us to have a say directly on this issue as reform is essential and inter-county players must be part of that review process”.

In an official statement to the Irish Examiner yesterday, the GPA articulated their dismay at the vote in Wexford. “The outcome of the vote on the GPA motion at Congress on Saturday was very disappointing. We feel this is an opportunity missed by the GAA. The GPA wants to play its part in helping to reform and improve fixtures — an issue that impacts very directly on our members and something that we all care passionately about. A seat at the CCCC would have allowed us to help shape that change.”

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