RTÉ and the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) will meet today to try to resolve the controversy over the product placement of the Club Energise drink.

In what has developed into a stand-off, the broadcaster has refused to allow players to display and consume the product while being interviewed after matches, and some players in turn have refused to co-operate with these interviews.

The drink's manufacturers Cantrell and Cochrane, who sponsor the GPA, have offered €500 to any player who can get the product on camera.

On Friday, the Cork hurling panel declined to talk to RTÉ's Pascal Sheehy, and on Sunday neither of the winning panels at Croke Park, Laois and Dublin, provided anyone for interview, apart from the managers.

Whereas the GPA have not taken an official position on the matter, they have encouraged their members to discuss the situation. RTÉ maintain their hands are tied by legislation, which prohibits such product placement.

The GPA have responded that this has happened and been tolerated in the past from rugby players, specifically Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll, who made a point of flaunting a different drink, with whose manufacturers he has a promotional deal, in post-match interviews.

This became an issue with RTÉ and O'Driscoll was eventually stopped from using interview time in this way. But the incidents had created controversy in relation to the matter.

Armagh's Ronan Clarke started the ball rolling on the current controversy by ostentatiously swigging from a Club Energise bottle during a post-match interview.

RTÉ, who had been contacted by the GPA seeking permission for this form of advertising to be allowed or at least "a blind eye" be turned to it, decided that they couldn't put up with the breach of regulation any longer.

According to a source in RTÉ, it is hoped today's meeting will sort out the matter once and for all, but there is limited room for manoeuvre. The station feels hard done-by, seeing itself merely as an intermediary bound by legislation.

In the circumstances, there is little the broadcaster can do about the product placement and they will also make clear they won't pay for interviews, given the substantial cost of the broadcasting rights agreement with Croke Park.