Gaelic Games Digest/Central Council: Around €3 million from championship gate receipts is to be distributed to the various counties and provincial bodies, reports Ian O'Riordan.

The finances of this year's championship were one of several reports to Saturday's Central Council meeting which confirmed that there was a negative financial return from the hurling qualifiers, while the football qualifiers would also have had a deficit but for the draw between Dublin and Tyrone. As a result, it was agreed that more qualifier games would be fixed for venues outside of Croke Park.

The introduction of the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard Cups, plus the existing Tommy Murphy Cup, also proved a significant financial drain.

While there was general support from the participating counties for their retention, it was agreed that much of the quarter-final revenue would therefore need to be allocated to the counties and provincial councils.

The full breakdown of the championship gate receipts is as follows: Each county, including the overseas units, that participated in the All-Ireland football championship are to receive €40,000 - which represents a total of €1.4 million, slightly down on last year's figures. Each provincial council will receive €125,000. In hurling, each participating county will receive €38,000 - a total of €456,000.

The 10 counties that participated in the Christy Ring Cup will receive €25,000 each, while the 12 counties that participated in the Nicky Rackard Cup will share €130,000. The Insurance fund is also being supplemented by an injection of €350,000 from championship revenue.

Dublin and Tyrone are receive a payment of €20,000 each because of their drawn quarter-final, while Down will receive a payment of €10,000 as a gesture because of the timing error in the Christy Ring Cup final.

Saturday's meeting revealed several other significant developments, and was attended for the first time by Dessie Farrell, the chief executive of the Gaelic Players Association, recently voted in as the players' representative on Central Council.

A special presentation on future strategy on Games Development and Policy was given by Pat Daly, head of games in Croke Park and Pauric Duffy, the chairman of the National Coaching and Games Development Committee.

They outlined the programme, which involves an investment close to €12 million on various coaching and games development in the current year. Significant amounts of that funding is being made available by the Irish Sports Council and the Sports Council of Northern Ireland.

When fully implemented, there will be 224 full-time coaches appointed and 58 part-time coaches from a current level of 191 and 41, respectively.

There will be 13 new hurling appointees in Connacht, Munster and Leinster - and Ulster will be making additional appointments because of enhanced funding from the Northern Ireland Sports Council. There will be particular focus put on Dublin.

Another revelation was the deferral of the National Hurling Development Officer. GAA president Seán Kelly had emphasised the importance of the appointment and yet, after the interview process had been held, it was felt that no candidate was considered as meeting the full criteria required.

In the further development of floodlighting at county grounds, it was agreed to provide funding towards the provision of floodlighting in two more county grounds in each province.

The grounds already approved in this context are Páirc Tailteann, Navan, O'Moore Park, Portlaoise, in Leinster; Ulster's will be Casement Park and Healy Park, Omagh; while the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick and Walsh Park, Waterford, are the Munster grounds. The two grounds in Connacht will be selected from Pearse Stadium, Galway, Mc Hale Park in Castlebar, Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon and Sligo's Markievicz Park.

ROSCOMMON: The identity of the donor who has offered the Roscommon County Board an interest-free €1 million loan has been revealed - he is self-made local millionaire businessman John Murphy, reports Liam Horan.

The GAA's Central Council sanctioned the loan at its meeting on Saturday, and Murphy's name came into the public domain for the first time. His loan will be used to dig the county out of its financial morass after it came to light earlier this year that the board was €1.4 million in debt.

Murphy, who has made his money in the building trade, said: "When I started in business from the back of my house in Castlerea 14 years ago, people said it would be impossible to grow a successful businesss from a small town in the west of Ireland.

"However, thanks to the encouragement I received, my business - John Murphy (Castlerea) Ltd - has flourished and I felt that assisting the county board would repay the debt."