News round-up: Clare will wrap up the county convention season tomorrow with another swipe at the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and their strike threat over the recently approved Government grants scheme.

In what will be his first address as the new full-time secretary of the county board, Pat Fitzgerald will join the long list of seasoned administrators to warn of the potential implications of introducing the players' grants, particularly the challenge it presents to the GAA's amateur status.

"I believe that by threatening strike action the GPA initiated a measure that was tantamount to holding the GAA hierarchy to ransom," says Fitzgerald. "Furthermore, my belief is that what we are witnessing is the fact that the association's amateur status is being seriously challenged. Money seems to be the objective.

"We shouldn't lose sight of the fact the GAA is an amateur sport and players who partake in the respective codes sign up to that ethos. There are thousands of volunteers all over the country who have given freely of their time, effort and energy at grassroots level, making the association what it is, the envy of any professional body. These people, unlike this group of players, aren't consumed with financial reward."

Fitzgerald is not the only official to express concern about the direction the grants may take the GAA, questioning the "gradual erosion of the amateur ethos" but also warning of further implications: "Division is also creeping into the equation. Is the GPA driving a wedge between the players and the association, creating a 'them and us' mentality?

"Is there a danger we are traversing a dangerous road to separating intercounty and club, similar to what has happened in rugby? Is it only a matter of time until players who are contracted to their county squad will no longer be available to play for their club side? Where would this leave the GAA ethos we all hold so high?"

Fitzgerald's elevation to full-time secretary was confirmed at a specially reconvened county board meeting on Wednesday night, which also gave formal approval to the county executive's proposal to sell Cusack Park in Ennis for €84 million and relocate to a greenfield site on the outskirts of the town.

After 17 years as secretary on a voluntary basis, Fitzgerald, the father of the long-serving Clare goalkeeper Davy Fitzgerald, now moves into a job that pays an annual salary of €55,000, of which the GAA's Central Council will provide €30,000, the other €25,000 coming from within Clare GAA.

The decision to sell Cusack Park was unanimous. Although it has been home to Clare GAA since 1936, it badly needed redevelopment, and the club delegates voted 61 in favour, eight against, with five abstentions, for the new site, which will include a 28,000-capacity stadium, with a training section and all-weather playing surface also planned.

The decision still has to go before Croke Park for ratification, but in the meantime the Aisling Chiosoig Partnership, the purchasers of the current Cusack Park, are reportedly planning a new shopping complex.

Among the other issues Fitzgerald will address is the new championship structure, which, he warns, may result in the strong teams becoming even stronger: "In my opinion, it's a system that will nurture an environment in which the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker.

"Kilkenny are on a different level from everyone else and this system will ensure that their passage to the penultimate round of the All-Ireland is a nailed-down certainty. That's because their main provincial challengers, Offaly and Wexford, are labouring to keep pace and struggling in their slipstream."

Under the GAA's recent ruling that prevents county board officers from serving longer than five years in one position, the Clare executive is set for a shake-up.

Michael McDonagh will step down as county chairman after four years, with vice-chairman Michael O'Neil the favourite to take over.

Meanwhile, further talks are being scheduled between the Cork County Board and representatives of the football and hurling panels, who remain on strike over the board's renewed power to nominate selectors.

A brief statement following Wednesday's first formal meeting merely confirmed neither party would be commenting at this stage, as talks were ongoing.

• The 13th consecutive edition of The Championship(€14.99) is now available in bookshops. Published by RTÉ's Gaelic games correspondent Brian Carthy, it provides the only complete and definitive record of the 2007 championship, covering all 56 games (including four replays) in great statistical detail.