The GAA meet today as the threat of a year without the All-Ireland Championships looms ever larger during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The association's director general, Tom Ryan, has suggested the potential cost of losing the championship could be around €60 million - last year's entire revenue was €73 million. Amid the grave financial concerns which would stem from a lost summer, today's congress will discuss two motions, writes Sean Moran: "Firstly, there is the proposal to give the special congress the power to override the rule 3.38 that says no special congress held within a year of an annual congress can overturn any of the latter's decisions. The second motion simply states the main proposal that the GAA's Management Committee be given the power to declare that 'special emergency circumstances exist' making it 'impracticable' to conduct association business." The latter would allow management to swiftly organise a modified championship, when or if the government advice allowed them to do so.
Elsewhere today's favourite sporting moment sees Gavin Cummiskey recall watching the Republic of Ireland against Belgium at Lansdowne Road in 1987 - and Jean-Marie Pfaff helping the Belgians keep their hosts at bay. He writes: "The old ground gets remade into a shiny horseshoe, and we return every winter to file memories, but Jean-Marie Pfaff, unbeatable in his glistening blue strip, soars above them all, because of who I was with and how it all ends up."
Andrew Conway's lockdown diary continues this morning, and the Ireland back has some rearranging to do with his wedding - due to take place this summer - now likely to be postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. He writes: "Myself and Liz were due to get married on August 7th in Monaghan. I proposed in July, 2018, and we booked the venue the following September. We didn't want to rush it and as it turned out there was only a three week off-season because of the World Cup. We've since booked a band and a photographer."
Premier League clubs are set for another extraordinary meeting today, as the fate of the 2019-20 season still hangs in the balance. A number of clubs have reportedly settled on a date of June 30th to finish the current campaign. Meanwhile according to reports in the BBC, Uefa are aiming to stage the Champions League final on August 29th, with the Europa League final to be held on August 26th.
Did you know there used to be a golf course at Phoenix Park? Well, you do now - the Royal Dublin Golf Club were originally based there in the late 1800s, during the infancy of the game in Ireland. Ruaidhri Croke writes: "Further matches took place between the clubs in 1886, 1887 and 1891 but the very first was also the last to take place in the Phoenix Park as the Dublin Golf Club began to look for new sites for their course. It turned out regular army horse manoeuvres did no favours for the greens. After briefly playing in Sutton before returning to the park, the club made the permanent switch to Bull Island in 1889 and two years later the club was given the title of Royal Dublin by Queen Victoria."
And in this morning's Friday column, Malachy Clerkin has written about missing his weekly five-a-side match, and how few of us are likely to take kicking a ball around with our mates for granted again: "This is what it has come to. In a world with no five-a-side, you learn cold and dirty truths about yourself. You thought you were a good dude. Not the best, not a saint, none of that guff. But a reasonable, decent chap. Then you realised that the sole reason you're not nutmegging your daughter she isn't tall enough yet for there to be space to fit the ball through her legs."
