GAA in the Olympics / World Cup of GAA

fitnessaaron

With GAA being broadcasted via Sky Sports from June, are we starting to see GAA go worldwide.

Would this mean in the future that the GAA would get International recognition and thus mean a GAA World Cup and GAA in the Olympics?

keeponhurling

Ireland against who ?

iDave

Liam O'Neill already alluded to something similar last week

Edit: then again he might just been trolling Jerry Kiernan

Prop Joe

Pie in the sky stuff,As much as i love GAA it has no real appeal to non natives,As much as Ireland are progressing in Cricket and with all the SKY and IPL coverage has many picked up a bat in Ireland? Same with American Football/Aussie Rules.

I lived abroad for a number of years and the majority of new comers like watching maybe a match or so but have no real interest.

ThirdMan

No chance.

The Olympic Charter indicates that to be accepted, a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents.

Golf featured in the 1900 and 1904 Games but hasn't featured since. It's being reinstated for 2016, 112 yeas after its debut. The same is true of rugby union. It featured in four Games, the most recent being 1924. It's also being reinstated for 2016 in the form of Rugby Sevens, 92 years after its debut. Both of those sports had more global recognition 90-100 years ago than Gaelic games do today.

ciarriaithuaidh

Bit pie in the sky alright.

There was a tournament in Dublin the weekend of the AI football final a few years ago between selections from Australia, London, Rest of UK, NYC, North American board..etc, so that sort of a competition would be nice to see again if possible. Canada and Australia would nearly be as strong as the American teams at this point I would imagine. Asia and Continental Europe have seen a huge increase in participation levels also.

AugustusMinimus

ThirdMan wrote: »

No chance.



Golf featured in the 1900 and 1904 Games but hasn't featured since. It's being reinstated for 2016, 112 yeas after its debut. The same is true of rugby union. It featured in four Games, the most recent being 1924. It's also being reinstated for 2016 in the form of Rugby Sevens, 92 years after its debut. Both of those sports had more global recognition 90-100 years ago than Gaelic games do today.

Hurling was played at the 1904 Olympics as a demonstration sport.

RoyalCelt

How about we divided our country into 32 countries based on the county boundaries and have world cup and join the olympics? We can get all the funding in the world then going by jerry's logic.

ThirdMan

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Hurling was played at the 1904 Olympics as a demonstration sport.

Along with pigeon racing.

rockonollie

Prop Joe wrote: »

As much as i love GAA it has no real appeal to non natives.

I'll have to disagree there.......the club I play for in the US is over 90% US born players (only 2 irish players on the team that won the NAGAA title last year), our youth program is all american born (only 3 to irish parents), we've started programs in several high schools in the area.

Ironically, the GAA were originally invited to the inaugural meeting of the International Olympic Committee in 1894.....they declined the invite......how different things may have been?

rockonollie

ciarriaithuaidh wrote: »

Bit pie in the sky alright.

There was a tournament in Dublin the weekend of the AI football final a few years ago between selections from Australia, London, Rest of UK, NYC, North American board..etc, so that sort of a competition would be nice to see again if possible. Canada and Australia would nearly be as strong as the American teams at this point I would imagine. Asia and Continental Europe have seen a huge increase in participation levels also.

They played a similar tournament in Galway last year.....seperated into 3 divisions; Irish teams, international teams with irish players, international teams with no irish players

Prop Joe

rockonollie wrote: »

I'll have to disagree there.......the club I play for in the US is over 90% US born players (only 2 irish players on the team that won the NAGAA title last year), our youth program is all american born (only 3 to irish parents), we've started programs in several high schools in the area.

Yes,I was at a talk recently and a guy was telling me about a ladies team in Washington that had no Irish born girl playing,These are great stories but really an anomaly.

There are seven American Football teams in Ireland and i would guess that a massive percentage of the players are Non - American,But realistically it's a minority sport in Ireland with no big risk of it catching on

rockonollie

Prop Joe wrote: »

Yes,I was at a talk recently and a guy was telling me about a ladies team in Washington that had no Irish born girl playing,These are great stories but really an anomaly.

There are seven American Football teams in Ireland and i would guess that a massive percentage of the players are Non - American,But realistically it's a minority sport in Ireland with no big risk of it catching on

But not an anomaly anymore......the problem is that the clubs in cities like Chicago, New York and Boston get most of the exposure, and due to the amount of immigrants that have traditionally concentrated on these cities, these teams are majority irish......but once you go outside of these major cities, the vast majority of clubs (and also the smaller clubs in these cities) are mostly US born players.

Honestly, the misconception is the fault of the media and not the general fanbase in Ireland.....I've never seen RTE visit any club outside of Chicago, New York and Boston.......but the list of relatively unknown US clubs is quite surprising. There are currently 208 clubs in North America (1 more in the process of starting in Cincinnati) only 87 of those are in Chicago, New York and Boston.....

Prop Joe

rockonollie wrote: »

But not an anomaly anymore......the problem is that the clubs in cities like Chicago, New York and Boston get most of the exposure, and due to the amount of immigrants that have traditionally concentrated on these cities, these teams are majority irish......but once you go outside of these major cities, the vast majority of clubs (and also the smaller clubs in these cities) are mostly US born players.

Honestly, the misconception is the fault of the media and not the general fanbase in Ireland.....I've never seen RTE visit any club outside of Chicago, New York and Boston.......but the list of relatively unknown US clubs is quite surprising. There are currently 208 clubs in North America (1 more in the process of starting in Cincinnati) only 87 of those are in Chicago, New York and Boston.....

I think that should be lauded and well done to all them clubs,Think it would be nice for the association to mark these clubs existence by holding a few Exhibition games there be it All-Star trips or Inter County games.

But i think it would be a more productive move for the GAA to concentrate on promoting the games within this island,There is still massive room for growth in the GAA in Ireland.

Grudaire

Prop Joe wrote: »

But i think it would be a more productive move for the GAA to concentrate on promoting the games within this island,There is still massive room for growth in the GAA in Ireland.

It's not an either/or situation. In fairness the GAA can be grown nationally and internationally.

Personally I think the biggest area for potential growth is in Handball and Ladies football/Camogie. There's definitely scope to get far more people playing these games.

I think a stronger international dimension to the sport would only be beneficial nationally.

Prop Joe

Grudaire wrote: »

Personally I think the biggest area for potential growth is in Handball and Ladies football/Camogie. There's definitely scope to get far more people playing these games.

I think a stronger international dimension to the sport would only be beneficial nationally.

Agree 100 %

munchkin_utd

funny, I was thinking about this thread when looking at a friends facebook page over the weekend.
Must have been about 30 lads in their gowns and multicoloured belts, in a gym in Meath, ready to do some class of Asian martial arts.

Irish lads - in Ireland
Asian game/ sport

Now.. if people can and do organise to do Asian martial arts in Ireland and its considered normal/ grand/ to be expected - then WHY is it such an abstract, verging on ridiculous, concept to Irish minds that non Irish would pick up gaelic football and hurling abroad?

ProudDUB

keeponhurling wrote: »

Ireland against who ?

Dublin North, Dublin South, Dublin East & Dublin West?

Prop Joe

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Now.. if people can and do organise to do Asian martial arts in Ireland and its considered normal/ grand/ to be expected - then WHY is it such an abstract, verging on ridiculous, concept to Irish minds that non Irish would pick up gaelic football and hurling abroad?

I agree we need to keep a level head and growth like that should be lauded and encouraged but the idea that if we show the Yanks or the Brits or whoever an All-Ireland hurling final that immediately we will 80,000 people showing up for the New York county final.

If we can make football/hurling/handball accessible in alot of major cities that would be massive.Small clubs starting up in places like Cincinnati are exactly the template to follow,If the GAA could somehow help people like rockonollie thats where the growth oversea's is

rockonollie

ProudDUB wrote: »

Dublin North, Dublin South, Dublin East & Dublin West?

Don't fight it.....Ireland may actually have a chance of winning a world cup

Fianna Fowl

Occasionally listen to podcasts from Gaelic Sports Cast, covers GAA in far flung regions across the world. While the organic growth of Gaelic Football in Brittany has been well documented with 11 clubs across the regions, it seems that it is really beginning to take off in Galicia too. Between 300-400 in attendance at a recent local game.

The hurling club in Milwaukee never ceases to surprise me. They have an 11 team league, 20 players per squad and hardly an Irish surname among them.

BMX's are in the Olympics so stranger things have happened!

Realt Dearg Sec

Someone mentioned RTE above concentrating on areas with Irish born players. But to give them credit I remember a while back they did a piece on Budapest Rangers, where they focused on how many of the hurlers there are Hungarians. Their football team was mostly Irish born but on the hurling team it was nearly all Hungarian, in fact. Not sure how that happened, but it's interesting.

AntrimBJJ

I know this is an old thread and sorry for brining it back up but in light of the recent European Games I was reading on sport in Ireland. I don't have much interest in GAA sports but I'll sound a word of warning if I can: be careful what you wish for.

I used to do Judo and as many of you probably know, Judo is both an Olympic sport and from Japan originally. The world governing body, the IJF, was found in 1951 after Judo became popular outside of Japan. Thing is, the world governing body was founded by European countries and Argentina. Japan had nothing to do with the IJF when it was formed. The IJF was recognised internationally as the governing body for Judo by the IOC and others.

So what if the USA, Canada, England, Australia et al got together and created an international gaelic games association that the Irish GAA had nothing to do with? What happens if said association gets IOC recognition, starts changing the rules of games and introducing prize money for tournaments or professionalism?

Again, all speculative and pie in the sky stuff, but if Japan lost it's national sport as it became more global, why can't Ireland and the GAA?

davegrohl48

I heard from a European rep they might try for recognition when GAA is in 70 countries. It is some kind of qualification mark. Close to 70 countries have teams now. France being the most impressive with homegrown talent.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Both sports in some ways would have appeal for a bit of growth internationally.

Hurling has a sort of easy appeal to the casual viewer because is very fast and exciting so it could perhaps grow a spectator sport and maybe subsequently as a playing sport.

Football although not as initially eye catching as hurling could potentially have even greater scope for growth as it is a bit like soccer and in my opinion would have an even greater chance for growth because it's such an accessible sport and would be more likely to get people playing it.The only way a sport will really grow is to get people playing it not people watching it on TV every now and then.

The problem with growing any sport though is that if it isn't ingrained in a persons life from an early age the novelty can ware off very quickly.

I've never understood why handball and rounders weren't pushed more by the GAA. Looking at the amount of disused handball allies around the country it must have been a hugely popular sport in the past and rounders looks like a really fun sport to play but I (and I am sure many others) never even had a chance to play either of them.

davegrohl48

Handball was very popular in a lot of parts of Ireland up to the early 1970's. I don't know why it tailed off so dramatically after that.

Football has a lot of potential to grow but only the 11 a side version on soccer pitches. There is no possibility for 15 a side football to grow internationally. The 11 a side game on soccer pitches in Europe has been spreading like wildfire. Of homegrown talent teams that I know of I'v seen little moments which indicates the game is becoming more and more deeply embedded.
1. French teams who were as physical and hard hitting as any clubs back home at junior level. Absolutely no element of quaint foreigners playing GAA. These lads were playing with go through you for a short cut toughness. Big physical lads well used to the hard hits from rugby.
2. Munich ladies team regularly beating teams of mainly Irish at tournaments.
3. France actually has a full championship and now Spain seems to be growing one too.
4. Italy has a properly up and running team that is now competitive in Perugia. Italians mainly involved on and off pitch.
5. The administrative side of many of these European clubs has a lot of native Europeans involved. It is these heavily involved peoples kids and players who will be far better players than their parents. In Spain and France in about four years time you're going to be talking about 18 year old players with anything up to 6 years training completed.
6. The matches are all played with the same spirit and intensity of junior club matches at home. Again this is competitive football with the objective of winning. I have heard an official get a bad reception once where he gave a speech labelling the entire days tournament as some kind of great jolly jaunt for all the ex-Pats. Did not go down well with all the clubs in attendance as it came across that this is not competitive football more an ex-Pat kickabout.
If you were not fit enough to play junior club football at home you'd not last the multi-game nature of a typical European tournament.
Four or five games of 11 a side at 7.5 minutes each half is exhausting. I have seen County u21's be emptied past exhaustion by the end of a tournament.
All it needs to really take hold in Europe is for the GAA to properly support the structures in France and Spain to really develop their championships. Then go country by country helping setup proper inter club championships.
When you look at the absolute millions poured into stadiums in Ireland it is extremely inequitable that more isn't put into the game abroad.
- Club memberships are paid
- Tournament fees are paid
- Many clubs have to have a training fee to keep the show on the road
- Cost of travel to tournaments is paid
- Every host club for a tournament has a huge hosting cost for a GAA laid down rulebook of costs that must be covered
So in the era of talk of "Pay for play", almost all of the European clubs are "paying to play" at a level of personal investment from club members far in excess of any club in Ireland.
When you add up the 12 month investment into their own club by a typical European club member it is vastly in excess of anything in Ireland. If a club is not lucky enough to have a wealthy sponsor even moreso.
Finally the playing club members will generally have some role on the committee and everyone is expected to row in with helping for events.

But to speak positively I find that there are far less cliques in these small European clubs, the small nature of them mean that cliques wouldn't work for very long as the club would fold. When everyone knows that the club folding is an ever present danger it prevents any kind of laissez faire attitude to getting things done.

Realt Dearg Sec

it is extremely inequitable that more isn't put into the game abroad.
- Club memberships are paid
- Tournament fees are paid
- Many clubs have to have a training fee to keep the show on the road
- Cost of travel to tournaments is paid

Not sure how that's inequitable, clubs in Ireland have to pay to play as well, you say that as if the gaa is just bankrolling clubs at home to do all that stuff, they aren't. I know the expenses and distances are bigger abroad but the principle is identical.

davegrohl48

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

it is extremely inequitable that more isn't put into the game abroad.
- Club memberships are paid
- Tournament fees are paid
- Many clubs have to have a training fee to keep the show on the road
- Cost of travel to tournaments is paid

Not sure how that's inequitable, clubs in Ireland have to pay to play as well, you say that as if the gaa is just bankrolling clubs at home to do all that stuff, they aren't. I know the expenses and distances are bigger abroad but the principle is identical.

The game abroad is extreme volunteerism and expense on rented soccer pitches and sports halls. Back home a single small county gets more infrastructure investment than all of Europe. 50k was the figure I believe in last accounts. I believe the GAA go cash is meant to be ringfenced for abroad.