GAELIC GAMES CHAMPIONSHIP 2008 NEWSLIDL, THE German supermarket chain, has withdrawn its recently launched "Pro-Guard" hurling helmet from sale and advised anyone who purchased one to return it to one of the company outlets to secure a refund. The helmet has failed to meet the safety requirements laid down by the National Standards Authority of Ireland, IS355.

"Please cease from using this product immediately," reads the public notice taken out by the company in today's newspaper.

According to Pat Daly, the GAA's head of games, the association has been in contact with the National Consumer Agency (NCA) regarding its reservations about the helmet.

"We were in discussions with the NCA," he said, "because we don't have the legislative authority to do anything about products ourselves. All we could do was advise our units about concerns, which we did immediately. There have been criticisms that we are favouring Mycro helmets but as of now we haven't received any certificate, which conclusively verifies that any other helmet meets IS355. That's not to say that that can't happen in the future but as of now that's the situation."

Meanwhile, the row in Longford relating to match advertising signage has been resolved. GAA commercial and marketing manager Dermot Power was in Longford yesterday meeting local officials to explain the situation governing match-day advertising signage ahead of next Sunday's opening football championship fixture between Longford and Westmeath.

The meeting was also attended by a representative of the Leinster Council and the resolution, which is believed to include some compensation for the county board, must now be ratified by the parties ahead of Sunday's match.

Under the terms of the new multi-sponsor agreement for the GAA's football and hurling championships, all venues used for championship matches have to give over their pitch-side hoarding to the official national sponsors, in this case Vodafone, Toyota and the Ulster Bank.

This had caused difficulties in Longford where local advertisers will have to make way for the national sponsors' signage and the county board has objected to being asked to take down its regular hoardings. Moves were under way yesterday to resolve the issue.

"Dermot Power is meeting our county chairman and county secretary and we may have another meeting ourselves," said Longford PRO John Duffy earlier yesterday. "It has created problems with our local sponsors, who are involved all year around in supporting us. We're a small county and it's different for us compared to a big county because we have a small pool of people we can go to and they end up sponsoring a lot of things in the county."

On Tuesday GAA president Nickey Brennan was taken aback by the reaction in the county. "It comes as a bit of a surprise for us to hear this because the whole sponsorship issue and how it will operate has been in the public arena for the best part of 12 months. The matter has been outlined at Central Council level. We haven't gone into specific figures because they are quite sensitive, but the whole new sponsorship model is significantly better for counties from a financial point of view."

The week after next Galway play Roscommon in Pearse Stadium, Salthill, but there will be no complaints about the new arrangement, according to county secretary Bernie O'Connor. "I'm not saying that there's no problem about it," he said, "but the people in question will be contacted and it will be explained to them what the situation is."

The arrangement under the new national sponsorship deal impacts on local venues only when championship matches are televised. Then a clean ground is required to allow the sponsors' signage be displayed on three sides of the venue. The fourth side is available for advertisers who have made deals with the local county board, provided the companies in question are not in competition with any of the overall sponsors.

Problems arise in cases such as Longford's because the local advertisers comprise up to 90 per cent of the signage and there isn't room to display them all on the fourth side.

The new branding arrangements will be seen to optimum effect on Sunday week in Croke Park when the Leinster championship double bill between Meath-Carlow and Kildare-Wicklow is staged. According to the GAA one of the most striking aspects of the new ground advertising will be the high profile the association itself has at venues.

Next week will also see the GAA's new sponsorship executive Paul Dermody take up duties at Croke Park. His role will involve liaising with sponsors and also, presumably, trouble shooting situations such as the one that arose in Longford.