The GAA yesterday gave its strongest indication yet of its willingness to ban alcohol-related sponsorship. The publication of its task force report on alcohol and substance abuse outlined a clear policy of limiting such sponsorship, and proposed that ultimately it should be phased out. Ian O'Riordan reports.
It almost certainly diminishes the chances of any further extension of the Guinness sponsorship of the All-Ireland hurling championship, which is set to run until 2006 after a recent two-year renewal.
Although that latest deal is understood to be worth some €2 million to the GAA, the task force made the limiting of alcohol-related sponsorship central to its recommendations to reduce alcohol and substance abuse in Irish society.
Yet the GAA president, Mr Sean Kelly, who attended yesterday's task force presentation in Croke Park, said sponsorships such as that from Guinness were not the only cause in the rise of alcohol consumption among young people.
"The easiest thing for me to have done last year was not to renew the Guinness sponsorship," he said. "And everybody from the highest political life down would have said 'Well done' to the GAA. But what difference would that have made?
"This is a positive and implement-able programme. They've produced what I consider an exciting and hopefully effective report. We gave them a free hand, left them to their own devices, and we are very pleased now to try to implement these recommendations."
A former Galway hurler, Mr Joe Connolly, chaired the task force, and he passionately defended the role the recommendations could play in tackling the problem, saying: "We're recommending that the structures on the ground in every parish and village in the country take on this problem. Everything else is much less important, but we have made a strong recommendation on alcohol sponsorship by clubs, and I don't think we could do any more than that.
"And we have put it in black and white, that clubs stop alcohol sponsorship in two years' time. I don't think there is anything else you can expect a task force to do."
The GAA's relationship with Guinness, now of 10 years' duration, remains controversial at a time when Government policy is also closing in on alcohol sponsorship in sport. It is now likely that other sporting bodies, such as the FAI and IRFU, will be under renewed pressure to follow the GAA.
Mr Kelly said: "It's up to other sporting bodies to call that themselves. But we have the potential for a phenomenal initiative."