The Club Players Association have warned the GAA that they must listen to the concerns of players about the issue of fixtures, or face ‘drop-out, disillusionment or dissent’.

They want the GAA to address seven points before next season in order to address the mood of frustration among its members.

The Players association released a press release this week outlining the work that they have did to encourage the GAA to look into ‘recalibrating the season’.

The statement read:

“The Club Players’ Association has drawn their attention to the GAA’s own reports which have been ignored. The CPA is of the view that the GAA needs to use its time to recalibrate the season.

“To date Croke Park has not replied, we hope it is because they are taking time to review this material rather than ignore it.

“More than ever we need strong leadership, direction and action. The association was able to take swift and decisive action on fixtures as we faced the Coronavirus threat. When Coronavirus ceases to be a threat, the fixtures problem of our own creation will still be with us and will not have gone away.

“The GAA has proven it can take decisive action, the question is now does it want to because faced with drop out, disillusionment and dissent, we need to stop this problem in its tracks, eliminate the problems at source and flatten the fixtures curve.”

The CPA have said that they have looked at the GAA’s reports from 1971 to 2017 that have looked into the issue of restructuring fixtures. The players association state that the GAA have not implemented their own policies.

One of the proposals that the CPA are keen to implement is an establishment of an independent fixtures review body.

“From our formation in 2017, we sought the establishment of an independent fixtures review body, similar to the Strategic Review Committee established in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Peter Quinn. Eventually a Task Force was set up and we agreed to participate in spite of the fact that it was not of the independent nature we had requested.

“We were represented by either our Secretary Michael Higgins or Chairman Micheál Briody at all of those meetings. However, it did not take full and deserving account of any proposals we and the public put forward and it produced a set of in-house proposals that we firmly believe will not resolve the crises. The CPA saw no meaningful alternative and thus withdrew from the process.”

The CPA said that the atmosphere is ‘very dangerous.

“If a satisfactory set of fixtures cannot be agreed then this totally unnecessary and poisonous atmosphere will further escalate and damage our Association even further.”

They say that the Fixture crises causes financial difficulties for clubs, they say that intercounty dominance erodes the GAA’s core values, a lack of proper governance mean fixtures vary widely between counties, and managements are appointed without proper procedures.

The CPA fear that certain practices in the GAA could lead to a semi-professional or professional structure.

In order to address these issues, in their statement they outlined the following proposals for the GAA to implement.

– Draft a national games program by designating periods to club, inter county and third level.

– Once the designated periods are agreed, design competitions to fit within those time windows.

– Such structures should be set out in a manner that will ensure that there will be no conflict for players between the various groups.

– Create a clear set of central control structures to include the enforcement of existing rules, creating new rules where needed and strictly applying appropriate sanctions for breaches.

– Publish the proposed plan to all clubs so that they may decide on the outcome.

– To ensure a truly democratic result, authorize the holding of a national referendum of all clubs under which clubs will hold General Meetings to decide the outcome. There is a clear precedent in place for this process from 1971, when, with the authority of Congress, such a referendum was held to consider the deletion or retention of the foreign games ban.

– Call a Special Congress, remote if necessary, before the end of 2020 so that any agreed change may be implemented in time for 2021.

We ask that Central Council should rule, as is its authority under rule 3.38 TO 1, that there is full representation.