Páraic Duffy has said the Club Players Association request to ‘put on hold’ Central Council football championship proposals due to go before congress are surprising.
In a statement released on Monday January 23, the CPA suggested that if the proposals are passed there will be no possibility of properly addressing the ‘fixtures issue’ until 2019. Speaking at the launch of his Annual Report
in Croke Park, the Ard Stiúrthóir said such a position is a contradictory one, because the proposals are expressly designed to improve inter-county fixture scheduling in order to free up more time for the playing of club matches.
“That’s exactly what they take account of,” said Duffy. “You can absolutely argue, as is their right, that they don’t go far enough but I don’t think it’s valid to say that the proposal doesn’t take on board things like players holidays, closed season, etc. It does take account of those things.
“The CPA, (I’m) a little bit surprised by some of the things in it (Monday’s press-release). “They asked the GAA to fix the fixtures issue for all players, which I thought is what we’re trying to do in terms of the motions going to Congress.
“To say that if the proposals are passed it will be 2019 at the earliest and it needs sorting now? If you want to attempt to sort it now then why would you park it? The two things appear contradictory.
“If Central Council or Coiste Bainistí (management committee) were to park it, which they won’t, then the issue wouldn’t be addressed at all this year. “In my opinion having extra-time rather than replays is of huge benefit to clubs.
Certainly bringing forward the All-Ireland finals is of huge benefit to clubs. So I can’t see how they are not supporting those proposals. But that’s their right.”
In Monday’s press-release the CPA also argued that the championship proposals would be ‘detrimental to hurling’, a position that Duffy also struggles to understand. “I, for the life of me, cannot see how these proposals are detrimental to hurling,” he said.
“The only point that I think they may be referring to is, and I have addressed this in the document, was a concern that was expressed about bringing forward the hurling championship would leave too long of a gap between games.
“The appendices in the document were simply to show one way, my thoughts at how it might be done. But I made it absolutely clear that it was no more than that. These aren’t fixed dates.
“I don’t understand that criticism to say that this is detrimental to hurling. In fact I would argue very strongly that it’s a positive for hurling because of all games, if the All-Ireland championships finish earlier, the club championships would be played off on good pitches.
“We’ve had a situation where provincial club finals are being played in late November when pitches are heavy which is not conducive to good hurling.”
In Monday’s press-release the CPA also called for the immediate establishment of a ‘Fixtures Think Tank’ to meet and consult with ‘fixtures experts’ in the GAA and, if necessary, ‘take evidence from other sports’.
Duffy neither believes there’s merit for taking evidence from other sports, nor that a thinktank will provide any expertise that is not already available to the GAA.
“We have a Central Fixtures Planning Committee, which is a very good committee,” said Duffy.
“They’ve been doing fantastic work over the past year trying to streamline fixtures, working with counties, working with fixture analysts. They are the fixtures experts.
“I don’t see to be honest how other sports can help us to solve our problem. I accept we have a problem, we know that. We have issues that nobody else has in terms of players that play two sports - football and hurling - players with the various age grades.
“I don’t see that a think-tank will turn up anything that hasn’t been turned up already. We know what the problems are already, we need solutions.
“In fairness to the CPA, I think we need to give them time to come up with their proposals. The only proposal that they’ve put into the public domain so far is that they want the All-Ireland finals played by the 1st of August.
“They have said they’ll come forward with their own suggestions in time. I look forward to that and I think it’s important that they do that. If they are better proposals out there, we want to hear them.”
In their press-release, the CPA also requested that motions proposed by the Wexford and Tipperary County Boards to officially recognise the CPA at Annual Congress this year be ‘given due consideration without the possibility of
procedural interference of impairment’.
Duffy was adamant there was no such possibility of any ‘interference’ ever taking place. “They say that they hope that Congress will hear the motions proposed by Tipperary and Wexford in relation to recognition and give due consideration without the possibility of procedural interference or impairment.
“There’s no question of procedural interference or impairment. The motions will be on the agenda and will be discussed by Congress. I’m not too sure what they’re thinking at there.”
