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IFO: The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue has announced funding of €991 million to be spent on sporting infrastructure as part of the National Development Plan 2007-2013.
This is all I've seen so far, but can he really spend almost a billion euros and not a cent on the national league? :mad:
I see the league's allocation being under this bit. If we can get anything like a decent slice of that money a lot of progress could be made.Quote:
€440 million remains from the overall total with the promise of continued investment in sporting and recreational facilities under the sports capital programme.
He's also got €5M earmarked for grants for inter-county GAA players. No idea what it will work out at each, but I'd say it would compare to what an average 1st division player is on.
So the government will pay the GAA players while National League clubs have to scrimp, beg, borrow and beg some more to pay their players from gate receipts,sponsorship etc. I'm not GAA-bashing, I'm bashing government inconsistency. It's just not right.
You are pointing out continued bias and favouritism towards the GAA and contrasting that with the criminal neglect of football. Of course you're GAA-bashing. You should be ashamed of yourself.Quote:
Originally Posted by monutdfc
fault that they have their house i n order and thus were entitled to a slice of the cake???the minister said last year that if the FAI fully implemented the genesis report that money would be given but as delaney admitted a few months ago everything wasnt implemented yet.the GAA has done a huge amount of good for the country with reguards to communities etc,they been doing it for years.e.l clubs have only recently started to get involved more with their communities and contribute to them with social and sporting outlets etc.i know ill get bashed for defending the gaa here,i wont be online again till tomorrow so if i dont reply just know that im not ignoring yer views.
That's exactly what I meant Eamo when I said I was not GAA-bashing. They cannot be blamed for taking all they are given. Still doesn't make it consistent government policy though.
The GAA are not stupid, and it's not their fault if they are adept at winning political support. This is not about 'fault': it is about the political reality of the consistent and hardly accidental refusal to fund domestic football while resources are lavished on Gaelic games, horses and greyhounds.Quote:
Originally Posted by eamo1
Were any el clubs refused funding?
Continues the disgraceful bias towards state sponspored gambling. They are industries more than sports. Surely after the hundreds of millions put into state run pubs & restataurants (thats what greyhound tracks are really) they should be able to sustain themselves by now? Imagine how good the eL would be if the state built the facilties, subsidised the prize money (by around 50%) & then allowed tax free wages for players?Quote:
...horse and greyhound industries will get €70 million...
:mad:
I hear suggestions that the GAA has its 'house in order'. If that was the case why do they need governement subsidies wages for players & have serious discipline control at all levels of the game - fans attacks, referees attacked, players prosecuted for assault on the pitch. If thats the standard then the FAI doing fairly well...
:rolleyes:
Pats got 2 billion last year which we spent on wages......
Blah blah blah blah blah...Quote:
Originally Posted by eamo1
How many EL clubs applied for funding? :)
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by wws
Ssssh. we were supposed to be keeping that quiet. Now everyone will want a slice of the pie. ;)
BTW - completely agree with Petes post above re GAA. Spot on.
Can any amateur Irish sports person playing domestically apply for a grant out of this 5 million Euro or is it reserved solely for Inter-County GAA players?
If it is the case that it is solely reserved for GAA players then surely other Irish sporting bodies (basketball, football, rugby etc) can challenge it as it amounts to State discrimination against other amateur Irish sports persons playing at the highest level of their game domestically.
There's no actual system in place yet, it's 'on the table' for the GAA if they can come to agreement with the GPA. It's genesis was when McCreevy introduced the tax-break for professional sportspeople resident in Ireland: the GAA players couldn't benefit since they are amateur and the GPA have been pushing for something like this ever since.Quote:
Originally Posted by fitzknows
That's either a fabulously naive question, or an equally cynical bureaucrat's defence, worthy of Kildare Street. It doesn't address the underlying imbalance, which has nothing to do with form-filling.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Do you honestly think that if the league, or any eL club, thought it was going to come within an ass's roar of NDP money that it would spurn the opportunity?
Both this €5M player grant and the €3M handed to Croke Park for their floodlights feel totally outside of the Dept of Sport's grant frameworkQuote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
who should be generating revenue for themselves and thus dont need gove funding.GAA is basically amateur who relies on grants etc.do any clubs in other leagues around europe get government funding???????no they dont!
agree with the posts about gove giving funding to gambling industries in greyhounds and horses etc being a disgrace.
Firstly EL is not 'professional'. Most clubs have players on exactly the same working status as GAA. Except in the EL those players get paid openly (unless you're Shels... :D ). In GAA they get paid clandestinely, and then make a play about being the world's biggest amateur sporting association.Quote:
Originally Posted by eamo1
Secondly - most EL clubs are not generating revenue surpluses, precisely because they don't have the faciltiies to enable them to do so. The government has spent money providing facilities for the GAA to raise much revenue than the EL.
Thirdly - the GAA actively chooses to be amateur. To pretend that it doesnt really want to make any money, and that its players are all amateurs in it solely for love of the game. It could so very easily introduce professional player contracts etc throughout, and I have no doubt that some players would love it if that was the case. Meanwhile, it makes a bigger revenue surplus in a single Dublin match at Croke Park than all the EL clubs do in a year combined.
Finally - no other football league in Europe may rely on government funding. But then, I'm not aware of ANY national sporting association of ANY kind in ANY other country that plays in front of crowds of 70-80,000 in state of the art facilities, but is still able to convince people that it should be propped-up time and again by government grants. Domestic football in Ireland is not the exception here. The GAA in light of the rest of the world is....
Any time the GAA need money, they think it's the government's problem - and not theirs. And don't bore me with the GAA fund-raising waffle. It's just a shower of GAA heads giving money to their own clubs - because they know that by doing so, they get a whole lot more dosh for free - which they can then use to build enormous facilities which give them even more power and influence over their local communities. Sure wouldn't anyone build their own private pub if they could get the government to pay for half of it???
Furthermore:
How the hell are the GAA allowed ask for rent for Croke Park - after the government have put so much money into it???
The government are partly funding the Lansdowne development (and the government are the ones who MOST want to keep the home soccer and rugby games in Ireland for the duration). The FAI and IRFU have to hand over huge amounts to the GAA for the use of tax-built Croke Park. Money they could have invested in their own games. Which means that more government grants are needed to make up this shortfall.
So in a roundabout way - it's the government who are being asked to pay rent to the GAA.....
Hallo???!!!