Croke Park decision-makers are contemplating placing a levy on clubs to restore the loss of wages cover for injured players.
It's one of a pair of options offered to clubs this week by the GAA's president and director-general (Larry McCarthy and Tom Ryan). The other option being that players could choose to individually opt into standalone cover, which would be endorsed by the GAA.
Clubs across the country reacted badly when the cover was indefinitely paused last December. Waterford County bard was among a small cohort of county boards to raise concerns in a recent central council meeting.
A statement from Waterford COunty board earlier this month read -
“Subsequent to a discussion on the matter taking place at 2020 Convention, Waterford County Board contacted Croke Park on 18th December. The response received from the Financial Director was circulated to the clubs later that afternoon. Waterford GAA, Central Council Delegate Brendan Tobin also queried the decision at the Central Council meeting on December 18th”
“The matter was further discussed at several meetings of the Management Committee in early 2021 and the County Board have forwarded and supported the concerns of clubs with further correspondence to Croke Park on March 12th”
The matter was discussed at the following central council meeting and Croke Park committed to remedying the situation - at which point the two options were offered.
A number of club representatives across Waterford have voiced their opinions to WLR Sport on the pausing of cover for players, as well as the affects a further 25% would have on clubs. JOHN O LEARY - Ballyduff Lower Chair
"The average club might be paying around €2000 per year for player insurance – so to increase it by 25%, you’re asking clubs to give €500 extra at a time when clubs are very debilitated in raising funds themselves. They don’t have the opportunity at present to raise money because of the covid situation."
"What I think is that Croke Park have a better facility of taking in money and making money much better than what clubs have. I think they should have stood up to the plate and they should have covered the player's insurance. We’re an amateur organisation. So I think Croke Park do have the capacity to raise money much more than clubs have."
"Clubs are the sacred basic thing that Cumann Lúthchleas Gael have. Without the clubs they would be nothing, and I don’t think life should be made difficult for them, and particularly in this difficult time – not alone for GAA players and administrators, but for the country as a whole." GERRY QUINLAN - Colligan Chair
"This is a worry for the club officers and the players. Most clubs are not in a financial position to reimburse payers for loss of earnings following an injury playing GAA, and a lack of cover may discourage participation by some players who have personal commitments. We have also advised our players that they should look at sourcing their own personal insurance in case they do suffer an injury and will not be reimbursed for loss of earnings."
"Every club relies on fundraising and contributions from their communities as the sole source of their income. For many, it’s a struggle to generate sufficient funds just to cover their expenses every year. In the current covid lockdown, this has placed financial constraints on families within our communities and this effects the revenue each club can generate. By increasing the player injury fund contribution by 25%, that’s going to create an additional cost that every club is going to have to try to find additional revenue to cover."
"If one of our players does suffer an injury results in him having loss of earnings, that we as a club aren’t going to be able to make up that shortfall. So, for their own best interests - and that’s what we're trying to act in – we have advised them that they should look at trying to get some sort of personal insurance to try and make up that shortfall if the GAA injury scheme isn’t able to provide for it." Richard Finnegan- Gaultier Chair
"Will it put off guys in their early 20’s playing GAA this summer? I’m not so sure? Certainly, older chaps that are working and that have a family – you know, that may have been off work for the past year or so. It’s definitely a huge consideration, like is this another risk I want to take on? That god forbid, if something did go wrong that I’d be out of pocket as well as everything else."
"Particularly those that are self-employed and those that don’t have health insurance as well, so it is quite a significant consideration for anyone – particularly anyone who has been affected by the pandemic, that’s thinking about playing a bit this year, this may be the straw that broke the camels back, that they may decide ‘a look the juice is not worth the squeeze’ and it's just not worth playing this year."
"For a little bit of context, we had a look at it in our club, we probably wouldn’t have had as many loss of earnings claims over the last ten years or so. Those that have, they’ve been sole traders, they’ve been tradesmen or in that line of work. It certainly is important for those types of people."
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