Brennan to Outlaw Illegal Payments to Managers
Talking Balls
Hard on the heels of news that payments to intercounty players through the ’scheme-formerly-known-as-grants-now-called-expenses’ are not an infringement of Rule 11, Nickey Brennan has announced that he has the issue of illegal payments to managers in his sights.
Speaking after Congress gave legal payments to players the green light, Nickey said of illegal payments to managers:
“It is no great secret that the whole amateur code is being tampered with by a number of people and it is nothing to do with players’ expenses or grants. I have felt Rule 11 is very loose and bland at the moment and I think we need to redefine it in the context of amateurism today and what we mean by it. It is clearly defined now that players can market themselves and get paid for that and still not infringe our amateur status.”
Whether Government will come to the rescue again and offer managers ‘expenses’ at the going rate of around £80/€100 a session and the use of a dacent car with a full tank of diesel to get you home remains to be seen. But even a blind man can see the noddin’ and winkin’ that goes on up and and down the country as clubs push the envelope to make sure they’ve got their man in the (brown paper) bag.