Peter Quinn, the man who headed the GAA's Strategic Review, has revealed he took soundings from the IRFU before deciding that the GAA should not go professional. The Irish Examiner reports that apart from his fear that professionalism would create a two-tier system in the GAA, with problems over who gets paid and who remains amateur, which could only be divisive, Quinn also sat with a rugby international, who told him "whatever you do, don't go professional."
The rugby player, who is not named by Quinn, but whom he regarded as possibly the greatest winger Ireland has produced in the last 50 years, claimed professionalism has destroyed rugby in this country. "It has been reduced to an international and provincial game, and the clubs are dying," he told Quinn.
Filed by Johnny Proby
