The GAA’s decision to increase admission prices for this year’s league and championship competitions has been defended by Association President John Horan.

Last Saturday, Central Council delegates agreed to the price hikes and, speaking to RTE Sport, Horan said: “We haven't raised our prices since 2011 and when I took over I promised that we would do more for the clubs and of that increased revenue of €1.2m we're giving €500,000 back to the clubs and we're also giving €200,000 to our international units.

“So, as has been the tradition with the GAA, when we take in increased revenues all we do is recycle it and when I went with the proposals to help the clubs and international units, the money is being so well spent that there wasn't any spare capacity there and the only way to increase that capacity was to raise prices.”

The binning of the experimental three handpass rule was another major talking point following Saturday's meeting and, on that subject, Horan added: “There were various arguments from it. Some people felt it hadn't worked.

“The statistics from the great work done by our playing rules committee showed there was an increase in the level of footpasing in games but people felt they were only being substituted for handpasses and instead of handpassing, lads were footpassing balls.”

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