GAA expected to oppose drug tests

By Mark Jones

DUBLIN — The Irish Sports Council’s new anti-doping program could be thrown into chaos following a strong indication that the GAA will reject out-of-competition drug testing.

Out-of-competition testing is a key component of any anti-doping program. However, the secretary of the GAA’s Medical Work Group, Pat Daly, said it was "very unlikley" that the Sports Council would be allowed to perform unannounced tests on the association’s players at their homes or workplaces.

"Ethically, I don’t think it’s on," Daly told the Sunday Tribune newspaper, "and I don’t believe anyone’s lawyer will tell you it is either. This would give them the right to go and visit a player when he’s overseas on holidays. Or they could go to a school where someone’s teaching and demand a sample. That would infringe a person’s human rights."

Unlike Ireland’s two other major sporting bodies, the Football Assocation of Ireland and the Irish Rugby Football Union, the GAA’s members are all amateur players and Daly added there would be a "huge anti-feeling" to out-of-competition testing.

Statistically, out-of-competition drug testing is twice as likely to throw up positive results as in-competition testing. During the first year of the Sports Council program, 40 percent of the 600 tests will be conducted out of competition, but that figure is likely to increase to 60 percent within the next two or three years.

With $500,000 already pledged by the Government to the Sports Council, any refusal by the GAA to embrace out-of-competition testing would be a major blow to the new anti-doping measures.

"I appreciate that the GAA is new to this," said Sports Council chief executive, John Treacy, "but the effectiveness of the program relies on out-of-competition testing. We’re here to assist the various governing bodies in putting these regulations in place. We’re not here to be confrontational, but to help."

The GAA will debate the new testing proposals at its annual Congress in April.

Meanwhile, the incoming president of the GAA strongly hinted last weekend that the association’s controversial Rule 21 could be scrapped during his term of office. Speaking at the Monaghan County Board convention, Sean McCague said the GAA would have to be "courageous" if the proper opportunity for changing the rule, which bans members of the security forces from playing football and hurling, presented itself.