Jarlath Burns formally took over as the 41st President of the GAA on Saturday and has pledged to address the high spending of county teams over the course of his three-year term.
Speaking after the formal proceedings of Congress he outlined the potential for a licensing system similar to what is in place within most sporting bodies.
“We are the only sport in the world that doesn’t have a licencing system, which you need to adhere to in order to compete,” he said.
“I think one of the things we have to do in terms of governance, audit and risk, we should have certain principles which you adhere to within your county in terms of your accounting and modus operandi before you can get a licence to compete.”
Similar moves have been tried in the past to rein in the spending that runs to tens of millions and is a major outlay, particularly in a sport where the amateur ethos is still theoretically held dear.
He also spoke about Casement Park and a desire to know what the British Government will commit to so that the project can keep up its recent momentum, and also on the process of integration with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association that will take up much of the space within his term of office.
“We know that our Association faces challenges every day, change sometimes arrives at our door and for which we are unprepared and in other times, we anticipate change and create strategic plans to address what we think will happen in the future,” he said in his acceptance speech to Congress.
“In some respects, the current talks being led by Mary McAleese between the three Gaelic associations are a mixture of the two. Our clubs are largely ahead of us and a considerable number have been operating the one club model for many years.”
“My own club has been transformed since females began playing a proper role in leadership and on the field, though I acknowledge the anticipation of full integration is matched by understandable apprehension in some quarters at how this will look at the level of inter-county activity.”
“I promise we will move decisively, but sensibly towards this goal and I welcome today the group of girls from my school who told me they were coming here to ensure I mentioned them in my speech and who will hold me to driving this project to completion.”
A new Football Review Group has also been established with Jim Gavin and Eamon Fitzmaurice two high-profile members, to pull football apart and put it back together again to make it a more enjoyable spectacle.
There was plenty to enjoy in the quality of the Dublin Kerry game on Saturday night so maybe that will be a less challenging task than it might have been thought to be a few short years ago.
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