Newly installed GAA president John Horan has called on individuals in clubs to speak out against payments to managers if the Association is to maintain its amateur ethos.
Off the books payments to outside mangers has been a hot topic in recent years and a motion to restrict management positions in a club to its members failed at Congress on Saturday.
Outgoing director general Paráic Duffy, whose successor will be appointed next month, has repeatedly highlighted the issue in his time in charge.
Speaking last month the Monaghan man said: "We need to address it because we can’t claim on the one hand to be amateur and on the other throw a blind eye to this."
Na Fianna clubman Horan said he had encountered the practice during his time as Leinster Council chairman.
"There are occasions when you get an outside manager to come in and we accept that and give him his legitimate expenses but don't be giving him a lump," he told RTÉ Sport.
"I'm not getting into specifics but I know one particular club where the football manager is a volunteer, and did it all, and a group of people decided to collect money among the hurling fraternity and paid an outside manager.
"It wasn't on the books or anything like that. What rule were you going to apply there where somebody goes down the road and gets the local publican to look after the man who looks after the hurling team? To police that? You might as well accept it.
"Páraic has been on this for years and rules just aren't going to work. We've got to get people to buy into an ethos and a value within the organisation.
"You have to say within your club 'I don't agree with that and I think we should row back'.
"I remember a club coming into me with financial difficulties when I was Leinster chairman and I looked at the accounts and the manager was being paid.
"I said 'sort that out' and then come back to me and I wasn't entertaining them. We need that to be said but we also need people on the ground to say we believe in amateur status."
Horan plans to tackle underage inter-county development squads, which he believes are contributing towards an "elitist culture" in the Association.
"Young lads should be dipping in and out of county squads," he insisted. "No young lad should be deemed a success or failure.
"The amount of training that they do with the county squad – they deem that more important than their own personal career. Sometimes their parents see it as more important than being at a club training session or being with their club.
"Young lads going to county development squad training should be going in their club colours, keep it in their head that they are actually still a club player.
"I don’t think people are acting out of malice but some people are getting carried away with their own self-importance with some of the training sessions.
"It’s getting the right people looking after these squads, that they are looking after them for the good of young fellas, not trying to promote their own personal CV to become a future minor manager."
"People going out need to show respect for locals"
The school principal also had a word of advice for counties undertaking fundraising in the US, saying they should give something back to the local clubs in the areas they visit.
"People going out (there) need to show respect for locals," he said.
"When you're going over, you let the people know that you're coming, you let them know what you're doing and you try and leave a residue behind of some form, whether you give a grant to them or some financial support.
"If you go over there and you pull a five-figure sum and you walk away with it all you've done well so why not leave a residue at the base where you were.
"We can't legislate for that but I'm just asking people to examine their own conscience."
We need your consent to load this SoundCloud contentWe use SoundCloud to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
