Gaelic football and hurling's ruling body accused of selling its soul to Sky

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/apr/15/gaelic-football-selling-games-soul-to-sky

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The first day of April is one to be suspicious of news stories and so many in Ireland could have been forgiven for mistaking the Gaelic Athletic Association's press release that day for a close-to-the-bone wind-up. There were smiles from some but few were laughing. Despite a long-held position that it would not strike a deal with Sky for the rights to broadcast gaelic football and hurling, the GAA had done just that.

Many outside Ireland will have heard of the GAA but fewer perhaps understand its position as the country's most important cultural and social institution. The GAA is more than a sporting governing body. Formed in 1884, it played a significant part in the Irish cultural revolution that went hand-in-hand with the fight for independence, helping to foster a sense of pride in community as well as Irish identity. With a geographically based pyramidal structure from club to county, the organisation is critical to many Irish people's sense of self, acting as a social glue throughout urban and rural communities.

Until now, the right to broadcast games in Ireland has been held by native broadcasters, mainly RTE, the state-owned BBC equivalent, and in more recent times also by TV3, an independent commercial channel, and TG4, a state-subsidised Irish-language service.

The three-year deal they have struck with Sky means they will broadcast 20 matches, 14 of which will be exclusive in Ireland. The other six games are football and hurling's all-Ireland semi-finals and finals, and those rights are shared with RTE. The national broadcaster will televise the remaining 31 live games in Ireland, while in the UK, Sky will be the sole broadcaster of all 20 of these matches.

The deal will allow RTE to stream the matches worldwide and Channel 7, a free-to-air station in Australia, show all 45 games live.

Given the obsessive level of interest in football and hurling, both organised and played by volunteers and amateurs, the deal has been greeted with passionate debate. Some see it as a chance to allow the Irish diaspora to reconnect with home through sport and an opportunity to sell the games overseas, alerting the ignorant to the existence of two codes that are free-scoring and high on excitement and dramatic physicality. Others condemn the GAA for making a deal with a well-dressed devil, one that will eventually result in the sport swapping its amateur status for professionalism and lead to the isolation of the very communities that have helped make the organisation what it is.

Much of the anger stems from the fact that GAA are replacing TV3 – a free-to-air channel – with Sky, thus relieving many home fans of the ability to watch almost one-third of the games. Sources close to the deal say that TV3 offered the same amount as Sky, rumoured to be worth around £2m, but the GAA have denied this, saying Sky offered more, albeit not by much.

The GAA insists the money will be ploughed back into its clubs but such a move would still seem contrary to its mission statement, which proclaims "community is at the heart of our Association. Everything we do helps to enrich the communities we serve".

It is this point that Joe Brolly, a former all-Ireland winner in football with Derry and now perhaps the game's most controversial and eloquent TV analyst, believes strikes at the heart of the problem. "The whole point of the GAA," he says, "is that we stand against capitalism, that money is a necessary evil. Our objective is the creation of cohesive communities, that is our target."

Bringing Sky into the equation, he feels, will only serve to drive a wedge between the sport and community. "There is a genuine, deep-seated disappointment amongst Gaels ... and a real concern that we are starting to become something that we are not supposed to be. We are not supposed to be a commercial juggernaut. The GAA, philosophically, are the opposite of that. We are supposed to be communitarians."

Mark Duncan, co-author of The GAA: A People's History, also believes that the deal reeks of double standards and will lead to isolation within certain communities. "The move to a paid TV model," he says, "is inconstant with the values that the GAA professes to hold, the values which emphasise the ideas of access and participation."

Those who are less well-off, as well as farmers and the elderly, he says, will be particularly affected by the move.

Alan Milton, the GAA's head of media relations, defends the thinking behind the decision and insists money is not the main motivation. "There's three points behind the rationale [of the decision]. The first one, and the most important one, is to bring our games to Irish people abroad. The second is an attempt to raise the profile of our games, what we believe are the best games in the world to audiences who have never come into contact with them. The final one would be maintenance of the revenue stream. We didn't really increase our revenue from partnering with Sky – we marginally increased it – but revenue was not the driver of this arrangement."

Brolly is dismissive of the impact that screening the sport abroad could have – "my children and their friends love watching WWE on telly. This has not yet led to an explosion in wrestling in the Belfast area" – but others are far more positive. Many players took to Twitter to echo the GAA's positive sentiments. "Whats the big fuss about Sky securing rights to GAA games. Will push standards, increase global audience, and generate revenue," tweeted the Monaghan footballer Dick Clerkin. Kerry's Paul Geaney agreed: "Sky Sports is the way to go to showcase our game to the world."

Dessie Farrell, a former all-Ireland winner with Dublin and now the chief executive of the Gaelic Players Association, says "the overwhelming sentiment [of the players] is that it's a positive move for the games". However, he refused to back the notion, floated in the wake of the announcement by Donal O'Neill, a co-founder of the GPA, that professionalism is "slowly coming, but most very surely". Farrell calls it a "red herring" and says that the sports' amateur status is safe: "I don't think players, supporters, administrators, volunteers have the appetite for that or will do in he future," he says.

This is not the first time the GAA has made a controversial commercial decision. In 1991, it allowed sponsors' names and logos on players' shirts for the first time, amid predictions of doom from many members. The GAA survived that, and amateurism remained intact – although players are allowed to benefit from personal sponsorship and endorsement – but the Sky deal feels of a different magnitude. The broadcaster has the power, potential and money to alter a game and its audiences almost beyond all recognition – just ask the Premier League, or darts – and among fans of gaelic games, the sense of a new era dawning is palpable.