Most county boards will need to adopt tighter financial restrictions to prevent the continued over-expenditure on their county teams, according to GAA president Seán McCague. In many instances, he said, there will be a need for cutbacks.

Speaking at Croke Park yesterday, where he announced a new GAA sponsorship deal with Toyota, McCague referred to the increasing cost of preparing inter-county teams over the last year. Figures released on Monday showed a 25 per cent rise on the previous year, taking the overall spent by county boards on their teams to €11 million.

"To be honest, I wasn't surprised at that figure of €11 million," said McCague, "but I am concerned that the costs within many counties are not being capped. We can't assume that the financial success of the championship will always be there. Last year we did experience a downturn in the gate receipts from the football qualifiers, and we don't know what will happen this year.

"So I think we do have to cut back on our costs, and maximise the use of the money that is there. We've already increased the size of the county panels and that costs more, and will cost more again this year."

Part of the problem, added McCague, was many counties still don't consult the players when it comes to financial decisions.

"I said, as part of the Amateur Status report five years ago, players should have some ownership in the decision of where funds go. What counties have to do is decide how to spend the money, whether on gear or holidays, or cutting back on meals after training or whatever. But they can't spend it twice.

"And we've been asking officials to do that for five years now. Most of them have, but others still haven't. If players are involved in the decision then I'm sure there'll be no problems, as long as they know they are operating within the best possible scheme that the county can afford."

With 19 counties ending last year in debt, McCague admitted the situation will have to be addressed. Several county boards have called for more funds to be released from Croke Park and the provincial councils, and that route has been partly addressed with the increase in ticket prices for the later rounds of the championship, also announced on Monday.

It is the players, however, and not the county boards who will primarily benefit from the new GAA sponsorship deal with Toyota.

Under the three-year agreement the two All-Ireland finalists in football and hurling will each receive a Toyota car (the winners will get a Corolla, the losers a Yaris) as well as the winning teams of both national leagues (both will get a Corolla). Starting in 2004 the programme will extend to the club championships where both All-Ireland winning teams will also receive a Toyota car (Corolla).

It is envisaged the successful counties and clubs will then either raffle or auction the cars for several times their value, with the money specifically ring-fenced for the players' holiday fund.

Toyota also becomes the official car supplier to the GAA, with the entire cost of the promotion in the region of €250,000 a year.

Other elements to the sponsorship include a 10 per cent reduction on all Toyota cars for All Star teams.

"At All-Ireland final time I would think a county can transform the value of the car to five or six times its value," said McCague, "and that would be sizeable contribution to the players' fund."

Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey, who last month took over as president of the Gaelic Players Association, welcomed the Toyota announcement as part of the ongoing improvements in the general treatment of players.

But Carey also highlighted the need for greater control of player image rights, and especially in the area of team photographs. The Dublin football team initiated the process of controlling team photographs by not posing before their opening league game, and several other counties have followed suit.

"The real problem there is that come All-Ireland time you have people travelling the country with team photographs in their car," explained Carey. "Some of those could be made up in England or elsewhere, and they're being sold off cheaply to pubs.

"Then, say, Kilkenny as All-Ireland champions go out with their official photographs to sell, and we can't do it. And I'm on the holiday fund committee with Kilkenny and I know how hard it was to raise money.

"So what we're trying to do is protect our image rights so that when we want to raise money for a team holiday or whatever then it's the official team photograph that we can sell. The only way of doing that is to take one photograph later in the year, and we're working closely with the GAA on that to come up with something definite in the near future."