Still as relevant as the day we first wrote it ... back in February 2000

To some of An Fear Rua's younger readers the plays and poetry of William Shakespeare may be seen as a kind of purgatory they must endure as they plod their way towards the Inter Cert and on to the 'Leaving', muses An Fear Rua...

Ach tagann ciall le haois - wisdom comes with age... AFR can assure these younger readers that, as you get older and learn more about life and of human nature, you begin to realise the depth of insight and experience there is on almost every page of Shakespeare. In fact, over the entire canon of Shakespeare's work, what is extraordinary is how one human being could encapsulate so much psychology, so much knowledge of human frailty and express these in such insightful ways: 'Neither a borrower nor a lender be...', 'A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet... ' , 'Can this wooden 'o' contain the vasty fields of France?...', and so on. What's interesting too is that the people and problems you encounter in the pages of Shakespeare from more than four hundred years ago are remarkably similar to the people around us today in our everyday lives.

So, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to learn that the great Bard of Avon had a few comments to make that are relevant to current controversies in the GAA.

An Fear Rua mentioned - some would say, threatened - last week his intention of returning to the topic of proper remuneration and recognition of players and the issue of 'pay-for-play'. As he has said several times previously, the resolution and management of this issue is absolutely critical to the future of 'dis great Association of ours'. It will decide whether the GAA will continue to be an association of more than half a million members where everyone may aspire to the loftiest heights of sporting achievement, or whether it will evolve into a two-tier society - with so-called 'elite' players and mentors at inter-county level and everyone else reduced to the role of spear carriers in a Shakespearean drama.

It's worth returning to the topic this week because events are moving along quickly. Following the decisions of the Special Congress on Amateur Status in 1997, it now appears that a top-level committee of the GAA is about to issue a report with several interesting recommendations in this area. For example, the GAA will appoint a special Players' Agent, based in the Ceannáras, to negotiate sponsorship and endorsement deals on behalf of individual players. This is to avoid players going to 'non-regulated' professional sports agents. There will be recommendations on how to involve players in decision-making, increased expenses and better treatment all round for players and their spouses, partners and families.

An Fear Rua unequivocally welcomes all these recommendations. They are the result of three years hard work by this top-level committee. Now, AFR hasn't been spent the last three years pondering on this issue, but he has come up with 'An Fear Rua's GAA Players' Charter' and he'll be surprised if it doesn't cover most of the recommendations that will emanate from the committee.

An Fear Rua's GAA Players' Charter

• Only safe and medically-approved training methods will be permitted
• Freedom from performance-enhancing drugs
• The best of medical and physio treatment - all provided free to players
• Free access for players to the best of professional advice on diet, nutrition
• Mileage and subsistence rates to be paid at Civil Service rates
• Full compensation for any loss of bonuses or overtime incurred
• All expenses to be paid no later than 30 days after they are incurred
• Free insurance cover against losses caused by injury
• Free VHI cover at the highest level - Level E
• Free annual medical checkup
• All playing kit of any kind provided free
• Full sets of track suits, sports jackets, trousers etc all provided free
• Regular holidays or weekends away for team members, spouses or partners provided free
• A more generous supply of 'big match' tickets for players' spouses, partners and families
• Amendment of Rule 12 to allow players or teams get involved in appropriate commercial sponsorships. Money from these to be pooled and divided equally between members of the county panel.
• Extensive GAA scholarship schemes to subsidise access to third level education
• Recourse for payment of amounts due as above should, in the first instance, be to the relevant county board. In cases where the county board cannot meet the full cost, this should be re-imbursed to them out of central funds. Through booming gate receipts, advertising and sponsorship, there is more than enough money in the GAA to pay for all of this. The day of 'the poor mouth' is gone.
• A computerised Opportunities Register to be maintained at national and county level whereby GAA supporters could notify job vacancies and registering players could be matched against these.
• Official recognition at Central, Provincial and County level of a democratically accountable Gaelic Players' Association as the negotiating body for improvements.

An Fear Rua is in no doubt that the implementation of a Players' Charter on these lines would not only remove most of the current bones of contention, but would set a very positive tone for the onward development of the GAA. Indeed, if you look at the terms of the Charter, you will see that it is applicable in its entirety to the case of club players as well. It's implementation would allow players at all levels to benefit from the huge inflow of new money - including corporate cash - into the GAA in recent years, but without setting up a false divide between professional 'elite' players and their club counterparts.

An Fear Rua was never a great man with the figures. He leaves all that to the likes of clever economists (is that an oxymoron?) like former Dublin footballing star, Robbie Kelleher, who advised the Football Development Committee. However, a few calculations done on the back of a Social Welfare envelope in the shnug of Ma Molloy's drinking emporium make interesting reading. On the assumption that a player makes a round trip of forty miles to, say, a hundred training sessions (a very conservative estimate in large counties like Cork, Galway, Tipperary or Meath) An Fear Rua estimates that implementation of his Charter would mean payments and 'free' medical benefits of between IR£11,500 and IR£15,000 annually for inter-county players, with the higher figure going to players whose teams reach semi-final stage in the Championship. Paid promptly (and this is essential), figures like these could transform the lives of GAA players and remove much of the financial worry that currently hangs over them.

So, what had Shakespeare to say on the matter? Surely AFR can't be suggesting the players should get their 'pound of flesh' from the GAA, on the style of Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice'? Ah no, indeed. More appropriate are the lines spoken in Act II, Scene VII of the delightful comedy 'As You Like It', in the Forest of Arden, by the character Jaques De Boys when he mused: 'All the world's a stage… and all the men and women merely players... '

And before you even ask, An Fear Rua can confirm that this character was not a Shakesperean forerunner of 'De Boys of Wexford'....