Hi °C | Lo °C The decision to stage a high-profile forum that will focus exclusively on the protection of the GAA's amateur status has taken on added impetus following the recent barbed criticism of the GPA.
It was in giving the green light to the payment of grants to inter-county players that the Central Council qualified their stance by revealing that the meeting of club representatives will deliberate various aspects of the amateur status given the cur rent climate for change.
The GPA's achievement in securing the payment of grants has been met with a substantial degree of hostility and several county officers, among them Tyrone chairman Pat Darcy and his Derry counterpart Paddy Crozier, have been particularly outspoken in condemning what they feel is a retrograde step.
The forthcoming club forum is now seen as an opportunity where grassroots opinions can be ventilated - something that opponents of the grants scheme maintain has not been possible up until now.
GAA chief executive Dessie Farrell has made it clear, though, that there will be no going back.
And he has again hinted at what many of his members believe is a distinct thread of hypocrisy that has tarnished the whole grants issue.
Interestingly, not too many county boards have surfaced to confirm that neither their team managers nor any club bosses within their jurisdiction are being paid anything more than the requisite expenses under rule as contained in the Official Guide.
Indeed, while some counties have been particularly vocal in their condemnation of virtually everything the GPA stands for, the silence from others has been deafening even in relation to the issue of self-defence.
Hence the club forum which is due to take place in the New Year could provide the vehicle for further discussion on what is undoubtedly the biggest controversy to infiltrate the GAA since Rule 42 was amended to allow international rugby and soccer to go ahead at Croke Park.
