Football

GPA seeking 'competitive balance' in football format - Tom Parsons

Tom Parsons of Mayo (right) is the GPA's new CEO.<br /> Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Tom Parsons of Mayo (right) is the GPA's new CEO.
Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Tom Parsons of Mayo (right) is the GPA's new CEO.
Picture Margaret McLaughlin

THE GPA is often accused of too much focus on balance sheets but the new CEO of the Gaelic players’ body, Tom Parsons, insists that achieving competitive balance is a major priority.

The former Mayo footballer saw his country destroy Leitrim by 24 points in the Connacht SFC at the weekend, the worst of many one-sided encounters in the senior football championship.

“I think the Gaelic family is talking a lot about the need to restructure our games and that in every other code there’s a tiered system,” said Parsons.

“That’s one thing the GPA has certainly fed into the [fixtures] taskforce and collaborated with the GAA on a tiered approach but to balance that as well, the GAA are undergoing a strategic review and we submitted some of our core pillars.

“One of those is on our policy on competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome in every game and every competition. That’s a piece of work that needs to be aligned with the restructuring of competition. What is the detail of ‘competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome’ and what does it mean?

“That needs to be explored with the GAA and the NGBs [National Governing Bodies, the LGFA and Camogie Association], to really go into the detail of that. That might be fairness of the distribution of funding or capital spending in inter-county games. It might be a rebalance of resources: can we share and standardise video analysis, coding games, access to GPS and medical provisions?”

The GPA’s Head of Operations and Finance Ciarán Barr said that players “are broadly in favour of” a second tier football championship.

Following the merger with the Ladies GPA, the Belfast man pointed out: “You’ve also got to remember that we’re now a male and female organisation.

“If you look at the female competitions, they are tiered. If you look at hurling, it’s tiered and so football is the odd one out at this stage and it’s clear that you’ve got four divisions and you’ve got a very broad range of competitiveness.

“Within the divisions it’s really competitive but across the divisions it’s not so competitive so something has to change and our members recognise that and are broadly in favour of some form of tiering that will give this competitiveness.”