The amateur-professional debate: an exploration of attitudes and opinions within the Gaelic Athletic Association

The amateur-professional debate is a recurrent theme within the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). This exploratory study reviews the literature in terms of the preconditions to and the implications of professionalism in sport, with specific reference to both rugby union and soccer. This review provides the framework for the discussion on the key issues pertaining to the debate using qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, namely, senior inter-County players, senior administrators and executive members of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA). In addition to payment for play, the research identifies and discusses the attitudes and opinions of the participants on other important aspects which are relevant to the debate; these include firstly, broken-time payments and shamateurism, commercialisation and sponsorship; secondly, the structural implications, particularly, player contracts and transfers; the implications for the club; thirdly, the role of players’ association; fourthly, the role of the GPA within the amateur-professional debate; and finally a review of amateurism. The results of the research highlight that the aforementioned aspects are central to the amateur-professional debate within an indigenous sports organisation. The research identifies that professionalism within the GAA cannot be examined solely in terms of direct payment to the players.