OPINION: GAA Congress delegates prove they are only interested in the bottom line

To lots of people Richard Scudamore is the capitalist devil incarnate.

In some quarters the chief executive of the Premier League is held personally responsible for rising ticket prices, ever more expensive TV subscriptions, the decline of the England national team and the selling of football's soul. It's a lot to lay at the feet of one man, who more than likely feels he should be celebrated, not vilified, for negotiating a £5.1billion TV deal last year. "I don’t like 'greed' because I don’t know what it means," he said in an interview ahead of the current Premier League season and he is probably telling the truth. Scudamore's job is to maximise revenue for his shareholders - the 20 Premier League clubs - and by negotiating a £2bn hike in what Sky and BT pay he has done a sterling job. The Premier League chief executive is a career businessman whose modus operandi is to make money for his employers - be it Yellow Pages, the Thomson Newspaper Group, the Football League or the Premier League. When Scudamore says he doesn't know what greed means, what he is saying is he doesn't understand the negative connotations. Like Gordon Gekko, Scudamore believes greed is good. Scudamore is simply doing his job. What's the GAA's excuse? The GAA is not a corporation, the GAA is not beholden to shareholders, the GAA exists to serve its members, yet in Carlow this weekend the GAA showed itself to be an organisation governed by greed. Why else would you ignore the concerns of club players and vote down the introduction of qualifier replays? What other reason would there be to go against the express wishes of your director general, who pleaded for support of the motion calling for the All-Ireland finals to be moved forward by two weeks? The regrading of minor from Under-18 to Under-17 and the U21 football championship's rebirth as U20 will help alleviate burnout, but they didn't cost anything. Congress has shown itself once more to be more conservative than a Donald Trump rally. The fact that the vote to open Croke Park to soccer and rugby is still held up as an example of the annual jamboree's ability for forward thinking is ironic. It is 15 years since that vote was cast. However in one very important aspect the opening of Croke Park was in keeping with last weekend's voting pattern... It had a positive impact on the GAA's bottom line. That was why the (admittedly ridiculous) motion calling for all televised matches to be broadcast on free-to-air channels was voted down with minimal debate. That has less to do with a love of Sky Sports' coverage than the fact it would hamstring the association in future negotiations and cost the GAA money. That was why two relatively minor tweaks that would have a huge positive impact from thousands of club players were rejected. Supposedly pushing the All-Ireland hurling final into August would see the GAA lose out on valuable promotional opportunities in the important month of September, while replays would cost the GAA 3% (THREE PERCENT!!) of its current match revenue. This is an organisation that has brought in more than €50m in revenue for each of the last four years. Money is important but, thankfully, the GAA is in a very healthy financial situation. However health awareness can give way to hypochondria. Heaven forbid the GAA would relinquish the month of September to soccer and rugby, but will unopposed televised Premier League and PRO12 matches in the ninth month of the year push the rank and file away from the GAA more than club players waiting 10 months to complete county leagues? How will that 3% of match revenue measure up against subscriptions lost when club players decide they've had enough of a calendar that affords them six training sessions to every match? “I think the club players will feel we’ve let them down a little bit. We had the proposals, we felt they were good proposals, but they didn’t get through," said a disappointed Paraic Duffy in Carlow. “I think we did really well on addressing the burnout issue but I think the club players would be entitled to say ‘what’s in it for us?’” Duffy should realise Congress are not interested in what is in it for club players. What is in it for themselves, their county boards and the coffers is paramount. Scudamore would approve.