'A cancer of GAA': Sports journalist condemns alleged illegal payments to managers

Journalist and author, Michael Moynihan joined Oliver Callan’s RTÉ Radio 1 show to discuss “an enormous shadow economy with literally millions involved” inflicting the GAA, 11 September. 

Moynihan, who wrote a new book entitled More Than a Game - the GAA and Where it’s Going, said: “It was very difficult to get people to talk about the cancer within the GAA, as someone said, of managers getting under the counter payments.”

Moynihan said that this practice was happening at a club and county managerial level. 

Oliver Callan said that Moynihan was asserting: “It’s illegal for one thing, collecting cash by subterfuge without paying tax is against the law.”

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Moynihan said: “We blithely disregard this even though it’s staring us in the face.”

The sport’s author said that the alleged scandal could “really capsize the GAA” and proposed introducing “a stipend for managers to formalise it”, as a solution to ending illegal payments. 

He further revealed: “The other great complication here is you have units within the GAA who are paying managers illegally, and yet which are also enforcing the rules of the GAA.”

However, Moynihan conceded that GAA manager roles often have a high turnover rate, depending on the performance of a team, which could complicate formalising stipend payments.