ARMAGH midfielder Aaron Findon says inter-county squads were in “limbo land” until the GAA announcement on Wednesday that no county games “are expected to take place before October”.
Findon, who is making his way back to fitness from a serious knee injury, says the statement brought much-needed clarity and he feels it is important that something is salvaged from the 2020 season.
“It’s great that the GAA have come out and given a bit of clarity on it,” said the St Peter’s clubman.
“We were just in limbo land waiting for a decision and through no fault of the GAA’s. People have called them the ‘Grab All Association’ but realistically it is a business. People need to be paid and you can’t really take the season off.”
GAA Director General Tom Ryan has already stated that going the rest of the year without inter-county action – losing out on the income from the National League finals and, more important, the All-Ireland Hurling and Football Championships, could cost the Association an estimated E60million. Findon fears that the loss of revenue from scrapping the entire season will lead to cutbacks in GAA expenditure which will impact coaching and development in every county and club.
“If you look at it, staff need paid, development officers need paid and that’s why you can’t write it off. Look at the funding that they’re giving out – okay everybody reports that Dublin get the lion’s share of it but you still would have development officers and administrators in every county. If you take away the income steam of county football and all the revenue that comes from it and all those jobs could go. That would be a backward step.
“You don’t want to be playing in the middle of a health crisis but at least they have put it back and given everyone a more definite date than saying: ‘We’re going to re-evaluate in July and then in August and then September...’ They’ve made a stand on it which is good to hear.”
