Ronan Scott: The CPA recently released a statement explaining your position on the issues of fixtures and how you wanted the GAA to address it quickly. In that statement you talked about having designated periods for playing. Why is this important?

Micheál Briody: It is very important to have designated periods for club, inter-county and third level. The main decision of which team to play for should be taken out of the hands of the player. That decision should be made for them by designated periods. It is unfair to make the player decide which team that they should be playing for. Whether that be their club, their third level institution or their county. There needs to be designated periods allowed for each of these, so that there can be a clear, unambiguous period for them to work within. If there is an overlap there is always going to be tension. If there is an overlap that means that something is unfair and that someone is trying to steal a march on someone else.

So it is very important that when those designated periods are allocated then we design the competitions for club or county within the period that is given. Not where we put out the different periods and then fit in the competitions that we have always had.

It is important that there is order to the system. The CPA has consistently said that there is a lack of order in the system and that is what brings the contention.

There should never be a debate between club and inter-county. There is space for both. But there has to be order, and the order is around designated periods for the different units.

RS: How difficult will it be to find a period that won’t cause tension between those three groups.

MB: We don’t think it will be difficult to find a time frame that won’t cause tension. We are not going to say that it will be easy, but a lot of the work has been done. Solutions have been put on the table. First and foremost this has to come from the leadership of the GAA. The Uachtarán, the management committee and central council. If they want to look at the solutions they have done a lot of the work already. They have to carry the best options and put them to the clubs. So it is not overly difficult. There has to be compromise, from clubs, from inter-county and from third level. From the GPA, to provincial councils, there has to be give and take. But it can be done.

If 2020 has taught us anything we have seen what can happen in a short period of time. We have seen how club and inter-county can get exciting. I think that’s an example of the GAA taking decisive action and leadership and putting it out to the association, and the association saying that they are going to roll with it. That is all for the betterment of the GAA.

RS: You also spoke about a central council structure for enforcement for rules. Can you explain why that is important?

MB: When we sat on the fixtures task force last year one of the things that was mooted was a central control structure. The intention was that that would be managed by the provincial councils. What we have learned this year is that if we are going to have rules to designated periods, and if players are going to be available to inter-county or club, that there is a structure of rules but also a structure of sanctions. For too long in the GAA we have had some rules that are followed and flagrant ignoring of other rules. We would like to see that body managed centrally, whether in provincial councils or county boards. We want them to manage the designated periods. Expecting clubs to turn in their own county it is not going to happen.

I think [a structure of rules] will come and it will strengthen the association as long as it is done within designated periods. If there is an intermingling of season, or a split season, they are going to have to adhere to this.

When the GAA came out and said that there would be no return to training for inter-county before September 14 they all adhered to it. And all the inter-county players are with their clubs and they are all enjoying it. Clubs are enjoying having their marquee players playing and training with them.

When this controlled situation is set up, sanctions are important. To enforce rules you need appropriate sanctions. Those [sanctions] cannot be fines or losing home games. Appropriate sanctions are if there is a breach the team and management are thrown out and suspended. If you look at any other sports for example those who take performance enhancing drugs they get banned. If you train in periods when you are not supposed to, to try to get an upper-hand that is akin to cheating.

So it is important that they have the correct sanctions and they have to be quite strong. There is going to have to be an example set to show that the association is serious and they are going to enforce the rules. If they are clear and unambiguous then they can work.

RS: You speak about a club referendum to handle this situation, essentially getting the club members to vote on that. How difficult would it be to do that?

MB: The fixtures decision ultimately has to be decided by the clubs of Ireland. The best way to this is by referendum. It has been done before in 1971 when there was the referendum on Foreign games. When that was lifted. So there is a clear precedent and it was authorised at Congress. This decision has to be made by the clubs because it affects the clubs here. If we go to Congress there is a strong overseas voting element who are not affected by this. It is strongly weighted to Croke Park. If management decide on something there are generally ex presidents, central council they all vote along with the Uachtarán of the day so clubs generally don’t have the power to get something through. But if we get a referendum to the clubs, and they get two or three fixtures options and they get to vote on them, that will set the association up for the next ten years, that’s what they want, that’s what the counties want. That’s the best and fairest way that we see of getting a decision on this and a decision that is not biased in one way or the other.

RS: Finally one of the things that I noticed in your statement was the tone, and some of the language you used. In particular you said that you there was drop out, disillusionment and dissent. It paints a serious picture. How serious is it?

MB: when we see the drop out numbers, and we look a the 2013 ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) report it shows that there is a drop out rate of over 60 per cent between the ages of 19 and 24.

That’s not good enough. What we have seen during the pandemic is a lot of players coming back to the club, albeit unintended, because with the abbreviated club window they had certainty of fixture and it was a continuous period of ten weeks. A lot of players are back playing and are happy about it.

We have seen that in every county there is a vibrant club scene. It would be great if we had more than 200 people at matches but hopefully that will be turned around. The games are back. In 2021 will they be back to go back to the way it was in 2019, waiting all year for club games? From our point of view, the club’s point of view, we have a taste of how good things can be. I think the county teams are revelling in it too. There is too much training, and too much commitment. The GPA study showed recently that there was 31 hours needed a week to allocate to an intercounty career. That’s too much. It can be better.

The CPA has called this a crisis, and the CPA doesn’t apologise for that. But it is also a period of significant opportunity. We are at a crossroads, it is very important that the GAA deliver a fixtures frame work for the association that will hold us steady for the next 20 years. At the moment the current system is not fit for purpose. It is not fit for purpose at any level, inter-county or club. It works well in some counties, but it is not as good as it can be.

We have said that it is not who’s right, it’s what is right. We know the GAA may ignore us, they may want us to go away, but nothing that we have said can be argued against logically. We are completely supportive of the county scene and the money and the promotional value that it delivers but it is the whole system. They have to step above the current system in which they operate, and deliver a system for all. That will be the legacy of the Uachtarán and Director General. They have been lacking in that respect. Yes they have been dealing with Covid, but this issue (Fixtures) has been going on for a long time. The change has to happen. We would hope all the good things we have seen in light of the pandemic, that they will reflect on those and that change can happen and the time to do that is now.

This interview originally appeared on the Take Your Points TV show on NVTV. You can watch the episode at gaeliclife.com/category/take-your-points/video/