Fogarty reveals professionalism fears
January 19, 2012Reacting to GAA director-general Paraic Duffy's discussion document, the former presidential candidate warns that paying managers will inevitably lead to players being paid. Fogarty also questions why Christy Cooney, who defeated him in the 2008 presidential race, is receiving a salary from Croke Park.
"The Association is now on the last leg of the tripod and headed for a big fall, unless somebody steps back and shouts 'stop'," he said in the Irish Independent.
"There are three traditional pillars of Irish society - the church, the GAA and Fianna Fail. Two of them have taken a battering and we could take a bigger fall than any. The GAA will fall asunder.
"We only hear from the grassroots one weekend of every year, at Congress. And the people that talk about the grassroots don't mean a word of it. I'd say 90 per cent of people attending Congress will have very little involvement in their own club. They're shouting about the grassroots, but this is an organisation that can pay its president in an honorary position a healthy sum. I think that's terribly wrong.
"We've lost our way in the past few years. The giving of €8.5m to buy the silence of the GPA - you'd hardly know they existed now but they'll be back for more when the five-year term is up.
"There's is no comparison now between the GAA that I joined all those years ago and the GAA now. Our strong point was the parish identity, the love and pride of the parish. But we've gone away from that." Tweet
