Today marks 100 days since the formation of the Club Players Association (CPA) and the players' body has released a statement this morning.

The CPA was officially launched on January 9th in Ballyboden St Enda's, where it outlined its chief objective of resolving fixture issues within the GAA.

The players' body failed to gain official recognition from Croke Park at February's annual Congress and this morning's statement was a reminder that their primary goal to 'Fix the Fixtures'remains.

The statement in full reads as follows:

"On the 19 April it will be 100 days since the launch of the CPA.

"Since that date, the debate on Fixtures within the GAA has grown considerably and been at times heated and passionate. The CPA has confined itself to one issue: to Fix the Fixtures.

"The CPA has been vocal and active from day one in placing the Fixtures issue squarely in the public domain. As a result the wider GAA public of players, members and supporters were made fully aware of the Super 8 proposals and were able to make up their own minds on its merits.

"The Super 8 process identified issues in the means of consultation and communication within the GAA with indications of a disconnect between the GAA authorities, county boards and club members and players. 

"While there has been a lot of opinion and discussion, there has been little movement on Club Fixtures. Congress made their decision on the Super 8, which we all now accept and have to live with. 

"There has been no attendant Fixtures masterplan on the Club game in 32 counties. On that issue as GAA members, we are no further along or any the wiser in terms of an official plan. The problems remain and are being addressed in the usual sticking plaster fashion in individual counties whose volunteers are often ill equipped to deal with the problems they face.

"The CPA has continued to engage very positively with GAA management to work towards addressing this issue, in creating a Fixtures plan that is based on sound principles. The latest dialogue is taking place this week and discussions are also ongoing with the GPA. At these meetings the CPA will discuss and outline the considerable volume of research and fixtures planning which has been done assiduously in the last 100 days by unpaid volunteers. To date we have over 25,000 members registered to the Club Players Association and we have surveyed all of them for their opinion, something the CPA will commit to doing regularly. Over 71% of players said their biggest priority was an unchangeable and predictable fixtures calendar and in the right forum and with a desire for real change we believe our work offers the basis of a solution to this.

"In launching the CPA we perhaps underestimated the scale of the problem, and overestimated the ability of the GAA to get to grips with the real issues. But 100 days have not been wasted. We have not been officially recognised, yet our work continues. It is not about official recognition, we are all members of the same association trying to make it better. What we disagree on is the way to achieve that.

"The recent situation around club fixtures in a number of leading counties where the rulebook appears to have been set aside with the attendant fixtures chaos underlines a blatant disregard for the rule book in an Association that applies the rule assiduously in matters of Congress, playing rules and player suspension.

"In founding the GAA, Michael Cusack did not mention championships or leagues. His aim was in 'providing national amusements for the Irish people during their leisure hours'.

"The GAA offers competitions that many county teams have little hope of winning. If it is about winning, an individual club player's best chance of winning in the GAA is with their club. If it is about participation then the Association is failing when it deprives its own players of the opportunity to play, let alone win. If the Association is about its players, then it needs to provide for the majority of members the hope to participate and win.

"We thank everyone that has engaged with the CPA in the first 100 days. It has helped convince us that the work must go on."

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