GAA President Séan Kelly has called for legislation to be put in place by the Government to prevent the practice of 'ambush' marketing in the GAA.
Kelly used the programme notes from last Saturday's All-Ireland Football qualifiers to express his disgust at the practice. He has been in contact with other sporting associations from countries where such legislation already applies.
He revealed: "A company behaving in this fashion in Germany or England would be fined or the offenders put in jail. I have been speaking to officials from other sports organisations and we intend to lobby the Government to introduce legislation similar to what exists in other countries."
In reference to the tactics employed by a beer company in the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals, he said: "The industry has estimated that for a paltry fee they generated €100,000. Why don't they put that €100,000 into the training or holiday fund for the Cork team."
Kelly also questioned the claim of the beer company in question that they are merely sponsoring hurling in the same manner as Guinness or Bank of Ireland sponsor the Hurling and Football Championships.
He said: "The money invested by our competition sponsors is spent in helping our county boards to defray the estimated €14m spent annually on the preparation of inter-county teams."
He also ensured that the newly established rules committee is working to clear the GAA rulebook of all loopholes that allow the interpretation of the rules to allow such advertising.
