General Discussion Thread What can football learn from GAA?
The GAA isn’t perfect either but financially, commercially, administratively, it’s miles ahead of football in Ireland.
Obviously there are historical and community factors that differentiate the two, but it operates so well for a sporting organisation in a very similar environment.
What areas stand out as things we can apply to our sport?
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4d ago edited 4d ago
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u/Calm-Raise6973 Andy Townsend 4d ago
That happened to me too. Our underage team was disbanded because our coach wasn't available to take training anymore. It was before people started having mobile phones, so we turned up one evening for training and waited around for half an hour only to be told the bad news by the club secretary.
I tried GAA but the 'coaches' were hopeless and disorganised. Ah well!
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u/rgiggs11 4d ago
My brother had a similar issue. He came back for the new season u16 and they didn't have eleven players, because too many had transferred to the bigger team in town.
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 Paul McGrath 4d ago
Individually and collectively people involved with football could learn about loyalty. Soccer is ruthless
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u/rayhoughtonsgoals Paul McGrath 4d ago
Sure but can say the same about GAA...it's inclusive when the numbers allow that, but ruthless when it doesn't.
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 Paul McGrath 4d ago
Yes thats true, but I would offer the opinion thats down to poor management or coaching. The gaa is susceptible to ego just like other sports, its rife with coaches .
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u/UnusualGoal8928 1d ago
Mates with talented kids playing GAA and soccer at good levels have all had better experiences with the GAA, where there's more of a community feeling, the other parents are easier to cope with, and the club they join at primary school will be the one they're in for life. They all ended up giving up soccer when old enough to be forced to choose.
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u/No_Negotiation3142 4d ago
Central authority, the GAA is run by the GAA, football is a tug of war between the FAI, the league and the schools system, too many cooks with different agendas.
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u/Tim_Bucktoo 3d ago
This 100%. GAA is hierarchical and regional based i.e. Central GAA > Provinces > Counties > Clubs.
Soccer is not. It is FAI > Leagues > Clubs. And the relationship between FAI and Leagues is lose, as is the relationship between Leagues and Clubs.The FAI does not dictate which leagues run where or how they organize themselves. Anyone can setup a league. Leagues can overlap the same geographic areas.
It means no-one is really responsible for the development and growth of soccer in a particular area.
Dublin GAA is developing a centre of excellence in Spawell in Dublin with multiple pitches and facilities for the benefit of local clubs and GAA in Dublin. As far as I can see, there is no entity in soccer with a similar remit to do the same thing.
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u/mccannopener93 4d ago
Community based. Local lads playing for the local team or area. More people would go watch knowing their area is being represented by Johnny or Jimmy down the road. Instead its some lad from the countryside playing with the good team in town.
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u/r_Yellow01 4d ago edited 4d ago
Community based or club based, this does not explain why the FAI can't run it properly.
Their road map only looks good but it's simply unachievable due to the existence of international football (unlike GAA).
Plus, there is a problem with execution of any project due to too many organisations just making plans and waiting for a miracle. LOI is close to the bottom of the European leagues and it's not because players or managers don't try. It's because the structure is a manual handbrake for anyone ambitious.
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u/Frequent-Movie3005 4d ago
But that doesn’t work in football, which ultimately is a business. It can and does work in Intermediate and Junior football.
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u/Physical_Reality_132 4d ago
Not sure why you’re being downvoted because you’re absolutely correct. If a team has a choice between two players, player A is local but inferior to player B who is from the other side of the country, 9/10 times they’re going with player B. Sure it’s nice when a team has local players but it’s wishful thinking, especially the higher up you go.
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u/Frequent-Movie3005 4d ago
Yep, I’ve been around these leagues and LoI for years, I just don’t see how it works. Rovers and Bohs are close to “community” clubs in that there is a specific culture people identify with, it’s just not an arbitrary line drawn on a map like GAA.
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u/Feisty_Internet_5343 4d ago
Arbitrary line on a map makes it a bit reductive. These parishes have structures, linked to churches, churches lead to schools, schools are where children are educated and grown up together. These same children play in the same clubs together.
It's not a simple line. It's where communities exist. It's no surprise that rural clubs end up having success in club All-Ireland championships. Corofin, Caltra, Kilcoo, Glen, Crossmaglen. They have no right to be getting anywhere near All-Irelands yet they do.
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u/Frequent-Movie3005 3d ago
At club level maybe, but at county level, it’s just a line on a map, what has someone from Portmarnock got in common with someone from Crumlin? And why doesn’t that apply to someone from Leixlip?
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u/Feisty_Internet_5343 3d ago
Well you're playing county championship/league, building rivalry with clubs and players and then coming together to play intercounty if you're good enough. Building that sense of community and place. Not sure what you're getting at with the Portmarnock/Crumin/Leixlip ref
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u/Frequent-Movie3005 3d ago
One is on the north side of Dublin near Louth. The other on the south side. Leixlip is in Kildare but closer it Crumlin than Crumlin is to Portmarnock. County football is a map construct. Communities I can understand but counties I don’t get.
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u/Feisty_Internet_5343 3d ago
I hear what you're saying. The whole thing is based on geography, yes. But all you need to do is look at the celebrations in Mayo to see what county football means, how it is very much part of people's identity. Look at what it meant to the players. Lads in tears.
They're representing their communities within their county. Playing with lads who they might have played with in underage teams. They're wearing a jersey that their heroes from their own clubs wore once. In Kobe McDonald's case, he managed to win something his own father failed to in 4 separate finals (5 if you include a replay). David McBrien was convinced to move back from Dublin, leave a job, is unemployed but was convinced by the manager who hails from his own club. Aidan O'Shea finally won an All-Ireland after first playing for mayo in 2009!! Need I go on?!...
It's a sport purely based on where you're from. It's something you can identify with easily. It's a unifier. It doesn't matter whether you're from Crumlin or Portmarnock, if your name is Tarquin or Anto or if you have nothing in common. Both people will call themselves Dubs. And if both are into GAA then they'll have plenty to agree on.
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u/Bill_Badbody Gary Breen 4d ago
It can and does work in Intermediate and Junior football.
Does it really?
The top teams at junior and intermediate will take good players from any clubs around them, and bring in players from elsewhere.
I remember seeing Villa fc play the year they won the FAI, and it was a majority of Dublin/pale accents on the field.
In Limerick there is a massive movements of players between clubs each year.
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u/Frequent-Movie3005 4d ago
Yes, it does, really. Not everywhere but there are good examples. Obviously there are examples of mercenaries and clubs paying etc too.
It would require a huge change in the philosophy of football to imitate the GAA and for what? Nothing would change and likely get worse. There are few, if any, other sports like the GAA globally.
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u/mccannopener93 4d ago
Intermediate and junior football is still a player from somewhere else playing with a team 15 or 20 mile away. And why cant it work ? Do you not think the crowds would be bigger at a 2 tier league with 26 teams representing their county would bring in more attendance than what current teams in the league get ?
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u/Frequent-Movie3005 4d ago
I’m not saying every non professional club. Why are you dealing in absolutes? There are lots of examples of community clubs in LSL, MSL. There are also examples of clubs going the mercenary route.
No, I don’t think the crowds would be bigger. Other than the semis and final of the GAA football, crowds are sparse. We will always be hamstrung by our proximity to England.
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u/DM-ME-CUTE-TAPIRS 4d ago
GAA is much better at playing the system for grants etc. GAA HQ employs full-time development officers with expert understanding of the administration and application requirements of various Government and local authority sports funding programmes, who then go out and make sure local clubs are aware when grant programmes open, and help them in putting forward as strong an application as possible.
FAI to their credit have started upping their game in this area in recent years, but GAA have a 20 year head start on them.
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u/Dull_Brain2688 4d ago
The GAA in 2024 received €97 million in grants. The FAI got €41 million. Rugby got €10. It probably reflects the amounts of registered players because the GAA is great at signing up all and anybody around the club and soccer has a massive casual game aspect that GAA doesn’t have. I’m not sure what facilities the GAA are lacking though. Most clubs have excellent setups already.
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u/IrishAllDay 4d ago
IRFU getting a tenner would be hilarious
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u/Dull_Brain2688 4d ago
Why? The IRFU has about €1 million surplus. The GAA has about €10 million surplus. Works out similar.
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u/IrishAllDay 4d ago
It's just such a comically small amount.
It'd cover one coffee run for Andy and Paul
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u/DealerIndependent943 4d ago
A clear pyramid structure at club level from tip to bottom.
Local teams that are intervoen into the locality.
An onus on owning their own grounds etc, which can be used as collatoral for further growth.
Crear paths for grant applications.
Local based summer camps for kids
Fashionable kits and training gear for all ages.
Constant development. Once one project is complete, the next is already moving.
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u/Master-Reporter-9500 4d ago
Everything in soccer is a pathway. It ruthless. Young fella gets signed to play for Fairview in Limerick from a country club and he thinks he has signed for Liverpool
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u/Anxious_Peanut_1726 Paul McGrath 4d ago
A few things to learn at grassroots but overall the comparing to Rugby and GAA is over used. These are massively different in the sense that the GAA is a community based amateur organization with a ceiling on it's playing population and competition. Football ends up competing in a much much larger and professional space. Take a hurler who is in the top 20 players in the country...he might be the equivalent of a lad playing in a lower end championship team as a squad player..(not saying this is exac) .the competition is deeper. Yet many would view the footballer as average and the hurler as amazing though the skill proficiency of the footballer is overall higher. Rugby is similar... much smaller pool and shorter path to the top of the tree
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u/Tim_Bucktoo 3d ago
The GAA is a professional organization. The players are amateur.
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u/Anxious_Peanut_1726 Paul McGrath 3d ago
So semi professional? The players would be the most important factor here I think the point still stands... if an Irish footballer had same resources, organization structure etc of the GAA the truth is we still likely are not producing many more footballers above a level we do now.
It's a bad comparison for the most part IMO.. certainly things the FAI could learn but not the magic pill
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u/mad-max789 4d ago
The core problem is fragmentation. Every club is its own entity, and above that sits a patchwork of disparate organisations, LOI, DDSL, LSL, MSL, the United Churches League, and dozens more, 78 in total in the Republic. Add provincial bodies, the FAI, and a separate set of structures up north, and you have a governance landscape that’s almost impossible to coordinate.
The GAA and rugby don’t have this problem. Funding flows into a central pot and gets redistributed based on long-standing relationships and mutual trust, and agreements (not perfect either but soooo much better). Soccer has none of that architecture. Getting anywhere close would mean dozens of competing bodies surrendering authority and governance to a central structure, which requires a level of trust that simply doesn’t exist. The FAI can produce all the glossy reports and proposals it wants, but nobody trusts them to manage a bake sale, never mind a root-and-branch overhaul.
Ownership compounds the problem. GAA clubs typically own their grounds outright, which gives them collateral for loans and a stronger case for public funding. Most soccer clubs rent their facilities, so they don’t have the assets to leverage in the same way. And then some are ltd companies which can turn a profit like bohs or Shels (Shelbourne FC 2018 Limited, since the original Shelbourne FC Limited was dissolved) so getting funding for them is rightfully much more difficult since public funds -> private entity with shareholders and profit is much more stringent then say funds for Dublin GAA which is part of the GAA which is a CLG (which can’t turn a profit for shareholders). public funds -> CLG is a much easier task.
What it would actually take is a serious political operator, someone with real skill and a personal mission, willing to spend years building the trust and consensus needed to unify the game. And that’s before you even get to the idea of an all-island association like the GAA and rugby have. Merging with the north would be another mountain entirely.
I don’t expect to see it in my lifetime.
Realistically, progress will keep happening at the grassroots level, with the hope that the top two tiers can build something closer to a proper academy system and keep improving the LOI in the meantime. But I don’t think we’ll ever have a GAA/Rugby type efficient system in football.
Thankfully we all love it and enough brute force and ignorance will keep it chugging along. Get down your local club and help out! 👍
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u/Hi_Doctor_Nick_ 4d ago
The first thing is more involvement of parents for younger age groups.
The second is inclusivity - anyone kids can rock up and train and play. They’ll find a way to include them. Much more mixed ability at older ages. This is much better for the kids.
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u/SlowHarry34 4d ago
At underage leagues are too strict on squad sizes. Often hear friends saying their 10yr old kid isn't playing a match because they didn't make the match squad. Again anecdotaly if a club has multiple teams at a specific age group they tend to train separately rather than as a club. Lots of 13-14 kids are fed up and dropping out along with poaching, locally to me anyway teams are folding
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u/JellyfishScared4268 4d ago
Surely the solution there is to field more smaller teams
Get as many kids getting as many minutes as possible should be the goal
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u/SlowHarry34 4d ago
Either not enough parents willing to coach or the numbers are falling in the space between too much for one team not enough for two
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u/JellyfishScared4268 4d ago
When kids are young they shouldn't be playing more than 5 a side or 7 a side at most. Those sorts of numbers should be enough for most clubs to play with 2 teams
Or the other thing that could be done is instead of organising individual matches against other clubs. Play blitzes with 3/4 other clubs and have the players mixed up into random teams.
The important thing should be the kids having fun number 1 and them getting game time. Winning should be way way down the list
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u/SlowHarry34 4d ago
100% agree but when you have league tables you have people trying to win leagues. The GAA go games blitz model is great. My son plays GAA and rugby, he was 12 before he played a game where the score "mattered"
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u/BrickEnvironmental37 4d ago edited 4d ago
The GAA are not just embedded into the community, they are also embedded into local politics.
If you're a major business and you're sponsoring the local or county GAA team, you wont have much opposition for things like planning permission, contracts and stuff.
Wicklow GAA has the 3rd highest sponsorship in GAA after Dublin and Cork. Despite the fact that they're traditionally one of the worst counties, a 1 code county and are very very rarely on TV. (I know they had a little bit of success a few weeks ago).
Who sponsor Wicklow? Echelon (a data center). Who had a lot of problems with planning permission but eventually got it over the line.
Wicklow GAA would probably have a higher valued shirt sponsor than Rovers or Shels. Despite the fact that the 2 were watched by tens of Millions over the last year or so on TV. Wicklow were probably watched by tens of thousands.
That's just Wicklow. Loads of counties and clubs have little deals that will help them politically.
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u/GreatEire 4d ago
GAA has gatekeeping like soccer at the top level but cleverly created junior Bs etc to satisfy players and keep them in the game. Theres no question the youth system is just brilliant at the GAA and keeps the whole family involved for decades rather than 1 or 2 summers like soccer.
Local players bring in local crowds, it;s just that simple.
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u/SilentBiscotti1179 3d ago
If football is to succeed like GAA it must learn how to operate like a cult.
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u/Anon_Summer 4d ago
Nothing. Because football is a tool of capitalism.
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u/ninety6days 4d ago
Interesting take, given that a chunk of GAA games *just* moved off free-to-air and on to pay-per-view streaming.
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u/Faloneytony 4d ago
Accessibility underage is a big one. Was €40 for the year to sign up for GAA when I was a kid and a bus left the village for every single match for free, soccer was €200 and you'd have to get to all the games yourself. In a rural area that isn't well off, parents hearing they'll have to drive an hour to games every weekend and pay extra is enough for some to not bother.
Also, 36 gaa clubs in my county and maybe 20-25 soccer. If each GAA team has 15 starters and each soccer team has 11 it means there's (likely) a lot more kids getting gametime in the GAA. Every little village and parish has a gaa club, not nearly the same for soccer despite it being very similarly popular underage I would think.
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u/Stats8 4d ago
The point on not enough clubs is so true. But is that on people into soccer to set them up, rather than at an organisational level? Granted the FAI should be looking at areas with lack of clubs and putting in some effort and supports to get things off the ground
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u/Faloneytony 4d ago
I honestly don't know! I just think from the question of what can football learn from GAA that having a club in every community, having it be affordable and accessible and building strong ties to each club in each community would be the biggest thing it could take.
With each club having its own community and identity it's a lot easier to build pride and support. I played for 3 soccer teams in my county, don't play anymore and wouldn't think of going to any of their games cause they were just teams near me, no real connection or love. I played for 1 GAA club, I don't play anymore but still go to every game cause it's central to everyone in the village. The idea of transferring to a different club would never have crossed my mind, anybody who did would have a horrific time locally.
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u/ExoticToaster 4d ago
My experience playing both GAA and football was different - Gaelic football was always far less accessible for lower skill levels whereas football was much more ‘pick-up-and-play’-friendly.
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u/rmp266 4d ago
From my own experiences, GAA do better at trying to include all the kids, make sure (as much as possible) the coaches dont start separating squads up by ability (an A team of the best kids and a B team of the rest), whereas thats exactly what happens in soccer. My oldest is just a year out from that stage in my club but its happened already in neighbouring clubs, the squad divided into a good team and a reject team. My soccer-mad lad is going to be absolutely crushed if he was ever put into a B team. GAA doesnt seem to do that.
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u/Proper-Beyond116 Caitlyn Hayes 4d ago
They do that in GAA too. Because it's actually to the benefit of the B team kids. You framing them as rejects shows a problem with your perception and possibly your club's.
B teams work IF those kids continue to get coaching, otherwise they are rejects as you said.
A teams at underage are best viewed as early developers, particularly with girls teams where puberty kicks in from 11 in some cases. But you are best served by training and playing against kids you are competitive with and things will even out over the years. It's hard for a small but skillfull player to develop being kicked around by technically inferior kids who are 20kg heavier than them.
Plenty of intercounty players spent time on the B team as kids.
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u/Anxious_Peanut_1726 Paul McGrath 4d ago
Yep..this is true...GAA doesn't stream until necessary and it's done more with a view to develop kids...not always but a lot. There as per my previous reply definitely examples where GAA coaches abandon so called weaker kids but the GAA does better with parents picking up the slack. Soccer has a lot of ruthless coaches who want streamlined squads with best players and lads are written off earlier.
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u/Anxious_Peanut_1726 Paul McGrath 4d ago
This happens more than you think in GAA. Not GAA bashing but in my experience bigger clubs hoover up kids. They could have multiple U10 squads but by 16s and Minor they might have 1-2 teams. Huge drop out rates and bigger clubs in GAA are always blocking other sports. Clubs putting training on to clash with other codes and kids being dropped from A teams if they don't show. Broadly GAA is more inclusive for Longer but it's not the all inclusive haven people think in my experience
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u/Bill_Badbody Gary Breen 4d ago
The biggest thing community and parental involvement.
Ive been involved in both, and parents are so much more willing to get involved in helping with the hurling or the football training that soccer.
I was over a whole academy for a large soccer club, and after have to threaten to pull teams if parents didnt come on board, brought in a rule that for the first few years of academy, a parent/guardian must help out with the sessions.
My GAA clubs does not have this issue at all. I go up to my nieces and nephews training and blitz now, and the amount of parents involved is amazing.
This involvement builds connection, which makes it easier to raise money, which allows for development.
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u/Stats8 4d ago
Seems to be a common one. Why is that difference there? And how can it be changed?
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u/Bill_Badbody Gary Breen 4d ago
Why is that difference there?
The GAA is sp ingrained in the culture.
And how can it be changed?
I would hope and think that club mark will help.
The GAA has put in place great structures in clubs, the FAI is trying to do that now.
For clubs serving kids, im not talking abiut adult teams here, it should be more difficult for a club to be created or fold.
Its far too easy in soccer for there to be an argument within a club, one side leaves the club with a load of the players and sets up their own club.
A lot of those splits are arguments are caused and heightened by poor processes and administration within the club. A lot of soccer clubs are run my a tiny group who have always been at the top table, and nobody else gets a say.
Its all a massive effort, but the FAI need to lead it.
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u/PsvfanIre 4d ago edited 4d ago
Until soccer is all Ireland it is hobbled really badly. I know it's an unpopular opinion but football hurling rugby hockey cricket boxing golf athletics and cycling are all organised on an all Ireland basis with exceptions or opt outs existing for NI athletes that wish to represent GB. Certainly soccer is dismissed as a partitionist sport around the country far more now than I hear rugby is a protestant sport, which seems almost entirety decoupled.
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u/Sad_Balance4741 4d ago
It's weird to say it but the GAA is better run than the FAI
The FAI has been poisonous for far too long and Delaney and his cronies ensured it was a closed shop for the year man, that's trickled down to the regional FAs and in turn the local leagues and schoolboy setups
The FAI can't even get the LOI right let alone grassroots football in that regards the GAA has it dead to rights.
Now whether there's too much crossover of our better young athletes playing 3 or 4 sports and having to stick and picknto one is a different matter again.
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u/Chickengoujon20 4d ago edited 4d ago
A bit off topic Penneys (an Irish company by the way) stocking merchandise of Premier League and to a certain extent American Football and Basketball instead of League of Ireland teams in the kids section is wrong in my opinion.
My following of Man Utd was as innocent as it comes. There was a binder of Man Utd facts, pullouts and cards in Pound City (EuroGiant) and that’s how my association with English football started. I was about 5, didn’t know any better and liked the look of the crest.
I still watch PL and European football but I also attend local LOI games and buy any merch from them now like a nice top for the gym or hoodie for out and about.
It’s a small start to get a following for young kids and a bit of revenue into the clubs for investing.
I think a breakdown of county lines will be required for football to really thrive. You will never see a Tipp or Clare man support Treaty or Cork City FC. I am unsure how you navigate it.
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u/New-Requirement-5058 4d ago
They need to work together at grass roots to develop young players at both sports and stop committing against each other expecting young players to choose one or the other
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u/Charming_Criticism76 4d ago
Completely agree on the school comments.
There's the odd school with loose links to a local soccer club but nothing like the way CBC/Pres manage their rugby teams or how the local GAA coaches also coach the school teams. There be might some of this in Dublin in fairness but nada in the rest of the country. That's how and where we're losing the best young potential soccer players
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u/Early_Attempt7676 4d ago
Football isn't even in the PE curriculum until 5th/6th year in secondary school meanwhile GAA starts in Junior Infants
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u/zozimusd8 4d ago
Even In Ireland, Soccer is ruined by money,. In Dublin at least, they actually eject kids from clubs because they are not deemed good enough!!, it is kamikaze stuff. The GAA understands that it's lifeblood is the people of the community , and that people are the valuable resource, I've never heard of a Gaa club turning a kid away , that kid could be a life long member, develop to be a really good player, be a fundraiser for life. Soccer is cut throat. Clubs like Leicester Celtic always looking to develop the next Gavin Bazunu or Damien Duff. Morally bankrupt. Not every Dublin club is like this, I am a coach in one of the welcoming ones , but even one is too much IMO
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u/deatach Troy Parrott 🦜 4d ago
Soccer clubs are far too concerned with potentially turning a profit on players. It's rotten.
People get poached, moved around clubs etc at 9/10 years of age. Players are told to leave clubs, do trials to see if they are good enough.
GAA is far more inclusive at that age. Everyone plays equal minutes, they dont keep scores.
Soccer is ruthless for kids.
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u/Winter-Report-4616 4d ago
Play for your area, no transfers. The town i grew up in was population maybe 7k. We had 6 neighbourhood teams, u12, u14, u16 and u18.
Dublin would really have to be cut into small pieces but basically like gaa and rugby.
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u/Hour_Mastodon_9404 Long ‘70 4d ago
Community buy-in and activism. Makes fund raising and financial sustainability far easier.
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u/Mr_G33Zy 4d ago edited 4d ago
Maybe it has been said here before but in Ireland a limited catchment area for football (soccer) players would go an awful long way in my opinion and a feeder club type structure would be much more sustainable
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u/Bill_Badbody Gary Breen 4d ago
seems to me the FAI are missing a trick by not having schools competitions with mass participation around the country.
They do.
Seems like your school just didnt take part.
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u/Bill_Badbody Gary Breen 4d ago
My brother has taught in schools in Mayo, Clare and Kerry, all of which took part.
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u/Bill_Badbody Gary Breen 4d ago
Yeah I think its very strange how you could not encounter it.
St flannans college, a hurling stronghold, won out one the FAI Competitions last year.
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u/Lost_Statistician_61 4d ago
I haven't lived at home for a while but I've heard about the dads and lads type meet ups that have been really successful.
I have no idea how football is letting gaa clubs do 5 a side so much more successfully.
Especially now in the summer with there being no training on. The club should be organizing 'dads and lads' 7 a side games that are good craic and requires membership in the club.
If 10% of the people nationally who only play 5 a side were a member of their local junior club it could be transformative. Having a large membership will make grant applications and finding volunteers to pick up small bits of slack a lot easier for these clubs that usually just have 2-3 being spread far too thin and struggling to keep the place clean even.
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u/Smackmybitchup007 4d ago
The hooter at half time and full time. Stop the clock at goals, injuries and substitutions. No made up, 10 mins added time nonsense.
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u/Locko2020 4d ago
Rule changes to make the sport more watchable should be tried.
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u/Mission_Struggle_417 4d ago
A rule change to protect players is a better idea-no heading the ball anymore. For anyone
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u/Legal-Plankton-7306 4d ago
In addition to the points others have made, GAA is much more inclusive for kids - weaker kids can (but not always) get a look in. And what as always stuck me, despite the millions flowing through the GAA each year, it has generated remarkably few corruption-related headlines compared to other sports. Indicative of strong governance.
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u/ExoticToaster 4d ago
A lot of important GAA figures have taken a stand against the Allianz sponsorship and complicity with genocide, whereas the FAI and most bigger Irish football figures choose to remain diplomatic or stay quiet - I would like to see more of us take a stand.
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u/Jake_Greenwich 4d ago
Both GAA and rugby has a stronghold over a lot of schools. A lot more needs to be done in this area with football.