Ulster Council secretary Danny Murphy has strongly criticised UTV and BBC for their poor coverage of Gaelic Games. In his annual report to tomorrow's Ulster Council convention in Ballyshannon, the Down man accuses UTV of "effectively abandoning action coverage", and also aims at broadside at the BBC. "The coverage, or lack of coverage, depending on your perspective, from UTV is alarming and it appears that they are effectively abandoning action coverage of Gaelic Games," he writes. "They are not part of any of the packages that allow for coverage of the games. News access and interviews are a poor substitute for their coverage just a few years ago." BBC broadcast all but one of last year's Ulster football championship games live, but Murphy described the GAA's involvement with the station as "very stressful" and accused it of lacking organisation after the Ulster championship ended. "The position of television is a continuing cause for concern and the past year saw a very stressful involvement with the BBC. "They covered most of the games but, except for the Ulster championship, there was a lack of organisation in how coverage was planned. Too often, it was a last-minute decision that allowed games to be covered." Elsewhere in his report, Murphy warns that Ulster GAA officials may be forced to increase admission changes to championship games this year as a consequence of the impact of the current exchange rate between the pound and the euro on their finances. He also claims that GAA clubs in Ulster are being discriminated against when it comes to receiving compensation for damage to their property. "The response again to our high profile was the attacks on our property which saw devastation on the premises of St. John's, Drumnaquoile, St. Malachy's, Edendork and Fr Rocks GAC in Cookstown," he added. Tweet

Most Read Stories