GAA to look at payments issue
The GAA has published a 29 page document concerning the issue of payments to managers.  There has been a storm of comment following the putting forward of three options by the amateur organisation.  The first is to do nothing, the second to enforce current regulations on expenses payment, the third is to regularise a system of contracts and payments either as service providers or paid employees.  The senior officials from each county will debate the matter at a special meeting in Croke Park this coming weekend.  We cover the issue, and the reasons concerning commercial partners that have brought it back into the spotlight, in this week’s issue of Sport for Business Weekly to be published on Thursday.
TG4 to broadcast Dublin Vs Kildare
TG4 has confirmed it is to broadcast live coverage of the Bord na Mona O’Byrne Cup semi final between Dublin and Kildare this Sunday.  The programme will feature recently retired former Dublin captain David Henry as a match analyst.  This is the first time a match in advance of the final has been broadcast on terrestrial TV and is a great boost to the new sponsor.  Bord na Mona will feature as the Sponsor in Focus in this week’s Sport for Business Weekly.
Olympic Council confirms grant for gymnast
The Olympic Council of Ireland has eased funding fears of Irish Olympian Kieran Behan by confirming a grant of €20,000 will be paid in the coming days.  Behan became only the second ever Irish gymnast to qualify for the Olympic Games last week.  He does not have any commercial partnerships and was ‘down to his last €10’ before embarking on a friends and family fundraising campaign.  His is one of the potential stories of the Olympics as he has recovered from a tumour in his leg and confinement to a wheelchair at age 10 to a brain injury two years later.
Fagan banned for two years
Irish Marathon runner Martin Fagan had a two year doping ban confirmed last night.  The athlete admitted to having succumbed to doping with EPO late last year in a state of depression.
The statement issued by the Sports Council last night brings to a swift end a story which may otherwise have cast a long shadow over the Team Ireland Olympic preparations and Irish sport in general.
The statement reads:
“Athletics Ireland and the Irish Sports Council jointly announce that the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel has determined that Martin Fagan, an athlete affiliated to Athletics Ireland, has committed an anti-doping rule violation.
“The panel found that, contrary to Article 2.1 of the Irish Anti-Doping Rules, Mr Fagan, tested positive for the presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolite or marker, recombinant erythropoietin (EPO), in a sample of his urine collected on behalf of the Irish Sports Council during out of competition testing at Tucson, Arizona, on the December 10th, 2011.
“Mr Fagan has been sanctioned, subject to his right to appeal within 14 days, by the imposition on him of a period of ineligibility for two years.
“The panel has decided that because of the prompt admission of the violation by Mr Fagan the appropriate commencement date for the period of ineligibility is December 10th, 2011, the date on which the sample was collected.”
Irish racing reports mixed statistics
Horse racing Ireland has produced its annual report for the year gone by and revealed that the number of horses in training has fallen to a ten year low.  Prize money is also down 3.5 per cent while bookmaker betting on racecourses is down 9.2 per cent to a figure of €97.5 million.  There were positives though with attendances up for the year by 3.3 per cent to 1.24 million.  Bloodstock sales also showed a strong increase.