THE GPA have gone green, with the players’ body nailing their colours to the mast ahead of Saturday’s crunch Central Council meeting.
In a surprising move, 70 percent of inter-county players who voted, favoured the ‘Green Proposal’ with just 15 percent backing the ‘Red Proposal.’
This means that it’s now almost certain the ‘Green Proposal’ will get ‘the green light’ at Saturday’s meeting and go onto the clar for next month’s Congress.
The ‘Red Proposal’ was a version of ‘Proposal B,’ which 80percent of GPA members were in favour of at the time, so this is something of a u–turn from the players.
Proposal B would have seen the league flip to the summer and act as the All-Ireland - with seven Championship games guaranteed - and the provincials played off in the Springtime.
However, this met with significant opposition from the provincial councils at last Autumn’s Special Congress and failed to gain the 60 percent required to pass.
It did gather up slightly over 50percent of the vote, leading to renewed calls for change.
Under the Red Proposal, the winners and runners up in the provincials would be handed two and one points respectively, ahead of the eight team championship groups throwing in.
Provincial winners would also have been guaranteed four home games, while the groupings were set to go back to the old Division 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B format.
This would have seen the current Division 1 and 2 teams lumped in together with four from each Division making up 1A and 1B, in a bid to address the widening gap between the top five or six sides and the rest.
Current Division 3 and 4 sides would make up Divisions 2A and 2B, effectively leading to 16 team championships in the Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cups.
The ‘Green Proposal’ would see the League stay as it is and played from January to April.
The provincials would be run over five weeks in April and May, with the Championship consisting of four groups of four for the All-Ireland and four groups of four for the Tailteann Cup.
The provincial finalists would be the top two seeds in each of the four Championship groups, with the other eight teams determined by league placings.
Group winners would then go straight into the All-Ireland quarter-finals, with the second placed teams playing off against the third placed teams in another group, in preliminary quarter-finals.
This weekend’s meeting will determine if any, one, or both of the proposals will go before next month’s annual congress.
But with Munster Chairperson, Ger Ryan already backing the Green Proposal and the other provincial councils likely to follow suit, it seem certains it will be the one to go before Congress.
GPA CEO Tom Parsons wrote to all County Boards earlier this week informing them of the players’ vote.
70 percent backed the Green Proposal and 15 percent were in favour of the Red Proposal, while 15 percent were in equal favour of both.
A GPA Statement read: “There is consensus among players that both proposals are a significant improvement to the status quo and this is to be welcomed.
“Players feel a unified approach for change at the upcoming GAA Congress must be a key priority.
“Players support for Proposal B at Special Congress last October was based on three key criteria; Fairness, Development and Change.
“It is extremely positive from a player’s perspective that both the Green and Red proposals respect those criteria. It is clear that the supporters of change at Special Congress were listened to.
“It is also important to recognise that the other key take-away from Special Congress has also been listened to: i.e. maintaining a strong connection between the provincial championships and the Sam Maguire competition.
“Players heard this message and again it’s clear that both Green and Red proposals have moved to keep that meaningful connection.”
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