'Our organisation does not want testimonials'
October 12, 2017
GAA Director General Paraic Duffy at the launch of his 2017 Annual Report ©INPHO/Donall Farmer
Paraic Duffy has indicated that Colm Cooper's testimonial dinner event may be the first and last of its kind connected to the GAA.
The GAA's outgoing director general, who will step down from his post in March after having served a 10-year term, rejected Cooper's comments that the association "had no problem" with the former Kerry forward's corporate dinner when speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning.
"Under our current rules we cannot prevent such events from happening. Do we need to look at it? Yes, we will look at it," Mr Duffy stated.
"It's tricky as our current rules don't allow us to deal with it. We need to look at the rules.
"I'm very clear on this, our organisation does not want testimonials. It's the message I have got very clearly over the last few weeks. We are an amateur organisation, we don't reward our players financially.
"In other situations players may benefit 'under the counter' and that's something we can't deal with now.
"This is a public thing. It's there, we have to express our view on it. Our view is we are not going to support it.
"At a recent management committee meeting, we decided to take some form of legal advice on it. It won't affect this testimonial, but it may have an impact in the future."
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