GAA President Nickey Brennan has refused to rule out the playing of non-GAA sports at Croke Park after the opening of the redeveloped Lansdowne Road in 2010.
Brennan who was speaking today at TG4's launch of their new 125 GAA Anniversary TV series, gave the strongest indication yet that international soccer and rugby may continue to feature at GAA headquarters.
He said: ‘I understand from reading the papers today that there is a motion coming in from Clare.
‘As the person obviously sitting in the chair, who will have to steer such motions at Congress, I'm obviously not getting into any particular motions but I always expected that something like this would find its way on to the clár and let it be debated the same way as everything else at this stage.
‘We are happy to see motions coming from whatever sources in the GAA and let people make their arguments on the floor of Congress.’
Brennan also offered his enthusiasm to the existing arrangements with the FAI and IRFU.
He continued: ‘I don't want to prejudge it but it's fair to say that the arrangement has gone extremely well from a logistical as well as sporting point of view.'
The Kilkenny man also spoke for the first time following the introduction of the GAA's experimental disciplinary rules which saw 85 yellow cards, no red cards and almost 180 black books issued during 24 senior inter-county games last weekend.
He said: ‘I would have to complement, in fairness, the team managers and others for their measured approach at the weekend.
‘I think people understood that it was an experiment and they were accepting that things might happen that couldn't have been foreseen.
‘January is clearly going to be the learning period and when it comes to the leagues, people should then be up to speed on what the new rules are all about.’
However Brennan was not making excuses for those who are saying that there is an unfamiliarity with the new rules.
Brennan stated: ‘This whole process is well over a year-and-a-half in gestation. We have spent a lot of time educating people and educating the media.
‘If people don't know what is going on now, I don't think they can actually blame us for it.’
The GAA President also failed to rule out the possibility of the new rules being filtered down to club games, should they be formally adopted for inter-county games at GAA Congress in April.
He added: ‘That decision has yet to be made (in relation to clubs). I have a personal view on that, that I probably wouldn't like to see it coming in until the beginning of next year at club level.
‘There may be arguments for and against it but if it is to happen at club level I think the education process needs to be widespread and we probably wouldn't have enough time (to bring it in this year).
‘Managing it at inter-county level is what we are well capable of doing at the moment, and if club is to happen well we'll see what happens, but it certainly isn't practical immediately post-congress.’
