The GAA has announced details of its major Millennium project, the establishment of a Hall of Fame. Two "teams of the Millennium" will constitute the inaugural 30 inductions. At the GAA museum in Croke Park yesterday, it was announced that the football team will be selected later in 1999 and its hurling counterpart next year. An Post will sponsor both teams and issue 15 commemorative stamps to mark each announcement.

According to GAA president Joe McDonagh, the scheme "will be a way of expressing our gratitude to players and acknowledging their role on the development of the GAA". McDonagh will chair the selection panel which has yet to be announced. The result of its deliberations will be made public early this summer.

At present, the nomination process is underway amongst a panel including former players, journalists (past and present), former referees and past presidents.

An Post have a long record of involvement with the GAA and issued commemorative covers in the association's jubilee and centenary years of 1934 and 1984. Jim Treacy, general manager of An Post, said that June's or July's issue of stamps "would celebrate the role of the games and the excellence of players who in their time were as well-known as the most famous names in history". He mentioned An Post employees have been prominent in the GAA in recent times: former president John Dowling, GAA writers' footballer of the year Jarlath Fallon of Galway and All-Ireland hurling final referee Dickie Murphy from Wexford.

Nominations for the football team are to be in by the end of this month. Subsequent stages will include the completion of the final selection panel, the announcement of the team and presentation of the awards to players or their families at a banquet to be held in the new stand at Croke Park later in the summer.

There are no set rules or criteria for the evaluation of players. Selectors and nominators will, according to GAA PRO Danny Lynch, "use their own judgement" on the inclusion of players "rather than opt for a system based on the representation of different eras".

He was responding to a question concerning the ability of selectors to give equal weighting to the players whose reputations pre-date widespread use of film and video and who have not played or have not been seen within the lifetimes of likely judges.

As well as the stamps issue, members of the Millennium teams and each future inductions into the Hall of Fame will have six-by-six feet portraits erected around the stadium and will be featured in the museum. All surviving award-winners will be entitled to two free All-Ireland tickets for the remainder of their lives.

McDonagh also referred to the organisers' intention to involve the general public by offering attractive prizes for those whose team selections most closely resembled the official teams.

Once inaugurated, the Hall of Fame will continue to grow with a hurler and a footballer - alternating annually between contemporary and former players - added on an annual basis. The project, according to McDonagh, "will represent more than anything else our preparations for the Millennium". It also reflects the GAA's growing interest in acknowledging its past. Only last summer the association's museum was opened and has well exceeded expectations in the number of people attracted to its widely-praised exhibits and state-of-the-art installations.

Halls of Fame are commonplace in North America with all major sports inducting around two players each year. Generally, players must have retired at least five years. In its centenary year of 1984, the GAA in conjunction with the Sunday Independent organised the selection of two teams of the century.