With negotiations between the GAA and the GPA regarding official recognition for the latter ongoing, Kevin McStay believes the threat of the nuclear option from the players' body is badly judged. News from the front in the on-going war between the GAA and the GPA is not great. In a recent interview Sligo star Eamon O'Hara has warned that players are prepared to go on strike if they don't receive adequate Government funding. It surprised me to hear any player giving time to this issue during the build up to a major fixture - is this not the decade of focus and concentration? With all GAA players about to see the old grants scheme reduced dramatically, O'Hara, speaking as Sligo's GPA representative, labeled the proposal by the Minister for Sport to be a slap in the face for all inter-county GAA players. Indeed. O'Hara also talked about the players' sincere wish to avoid such an end state but felt a strike would become inevitable if talks between the GPA, the GAA and the Government do not result in a breakthrough. Time will of course tell if that breakthrough will come but first allow me a slightly different viewpoint. It must be remembered that nobody demanded or continues to demand that a single inter-county footballer must play for his county. If it's all too much, step aside. And please, in the name of all that is decent will ye stop this rubbish about going on strike. The various threat levels hanging over the summer games from blackout on interviews with radio/TV to perhaps no pre match parade, no team photograph and of course the ultimate sanction of strike, is all a little uncivilised with the strike option down right offensive. One might have thought these were hard working men with a wife and three children agitating for the minimum wage, trying desperately to ensure they have a standard of living. Not amateur sportsmen following their hobby seriously and in turn rewarded with status within and without their counties, the opportunity to play in Croke Park in front of massive crowds and throw in another ten other fringe benefits along the way. Playing for your county can never be a chore, a horrible assignment that presents 20 times a year. It must always be a privilege, a dream for any young man who has an interest in one day wearing his county's gersey with pride. That has always been the honour bequeathed from one generation to the next and if this consumerism generation want to break away from that and develop the model into something it was never meant to be then away with ye to soccer or rugby or whatever grabs your fancy. The current debate centers on three issues as I see them: the grants issue, the recognition issue and the funding issue. Let's deal with each in turn. I have no great problem with the grants scheme as outlined in 2008 by government. The GAA, cleverly it must be said, kept well away from the kernel of the issue (the money and who might supply it!) but to keep the players onside devised a payments mechanism to make sure they again, were kept well away from any fallout. And as sure as night follows day, the fallout was only 12 months away and today this row is between the Minister for Sport and the GPA with the GAA only an observer who can say, in retrospect, 'this has nothing to do with us lads'. The grants issue is resolved. Essentially it will be greatly reduced, perhaps by as much as 70% with a concentration on elite squads - those that go furthest in the respective competitions each year. It presents an immediate anomaly: number 25 on the Christy Ring winning panel will get dosh while perhaps, Brian Dooher, beaten in a preliminary round Ulster championship game and thereafter in Round 2 of the Qualifiers is out of the divvy up. Who's the elite player here? Recognition, or so both parties are keen to state, is going to happen-sooner rather than later. I'm not so sure. Recognition, where the GPA are no longer an independent association but a committee within the GAA framework, will occur only when certain boxes are ticked and forgive the pun, these boxes will take time to square. And once the GPA is recognised, whenever that might be, the players must know that they will have lost their greatest tool - independence. And with it the ability to decide for itself. Not as straightforward as you might think then. In the matter of finance, whereby the GPA is looking for a bottom line 5% of annual GAA income, the obvious can be stated. This will never happen. As in, NEVER. While it's incorrect to state the use of percentages as a method of calculating funding is not used in GAA accountancy (the player's insurance scheme is a percentage of NFL and NHL gate receipts), it is the exception. The GAA would forgo their championships, the sacred cash cow that provides for all, to uphold this principle and the GPA can forget about this line of inquiry. The idea that various projects will be identified by the GPA and funded in turn by the GAA omits the notion of the GAA having a big say in whether that project passes muster or not. I can see lots of opportunities to grudgingly accept, water down or cancel entirely, some of the GPA's best ideas. They are the issues then and it will be difficult times ahead. We did not even mention the personalities involved and they will add fat to the fire. It will be crucial for the GPA to bring the watching public with them for if they lose that support they will crumble. The GAA has always operated a GAA Eco-System where the administrators are top of the food chain. Over the years the players have climbed slowly and incrementally but the balance remains. To destabilise it will be a real cause for war and our man at the front will probably come up with a strike as his nuclear option. We'll finish where we started with Eamon O'Hara again: 'If we have to go on strike, we will go on strike - that's the bottom line. That option was mentioned before and I'm sure it'll be mentioned again. We're getting a slap in the face. This is not all about money. There's a very important point of principle here and players are not going to allow themselves to be bullied into submission'. Seconds out, Round 3. Tweet

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