Seán Cavanagh has clarified his comments about the GAA's finances after they were met with disapproval by the organisation's president Jarlath Burns.
Amid fierce criticism that Saturday's Munster Senior Hurling Championship game between Cork and All-Ireland champions Limerick was only available to watch on GAAGO, Cavanagh said on The Saturday Game that "the GAA is using GAAGO as a vehicle to maximise more revenue and more profit".
"That's a superficial and emotional comment that doesn't take into account the complexities of the logistics that we have to deal with in the real world," said Burns.
"Seán Cavanagh on Saturday night on live TV, and he is an accountant at an accountancy practice, said that the GAA is one of the richest organisations in the world.
"We have €140million of a turnover, of which we give back 83% to our own members, counties, and clubs.
"For someone to make that comment live on The Saturday Game, considering the business that he is in, is just absolutely crazy.
"The only place we can get money from is with the selling of our games. GAAGO is a very small part of that.
"I will make no apologies for saying that I want GAAGO to become a major revenue generator for our association, because we need that money to upgrade our facilities."
'That's superficial, emotional comment'
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) May 13, 2024
Jarlath Burns takes issue with the likes of Sean Cavanagh commenting on the revenue generated by GAA without contemplating were that money is spent #gaago pic.twitter.com/VCEmhmX5Bi
"I maybe left out the word 'amateur'," said Cavanagh, when asked about his assertion that the GAA is one of the richest organisations in the world.
"I haven't pulled out the recent accounts but I remember seeing a couple of years ago 40, 50, 60million of cash reserves and a balance sheet of €100million. I'm an accountant, I know this stuff.
"For an amateur organisation owned by the members, owned by the people that are lining pitches, by people in every club up and down the country, for me that looks like a very healthy position.
"I previously worked with a lot of soccer organisations, a lot of them go bust all the time and haven't got 2p to rub together. For me, the GAA is in a very healthy financial position, they're acquiring lots of strategic assets all over the country.
"I think it was just the anger on Saturday night, the fallout of the Cork-Limerick thing and ordinary GAA people losing out. Let's call a spade a game, that game should have been on TV somewhere free to air, I think everyone recognises that.
"There's definitely a strong suspicion that there has been tactical picking of the games to generate revenue and profit.
"Why does it have to turn a profit? Why can't those games, whether it's subsidised by the Government, why can't you show the bigger games free to air to the Irish public.
"There's a bigger picture here of trying to promote our game and trying to not punish the people who run our games. I think that's where a lot of the anger lies, where it felt like it was a little bit sneaky of the GAA on Saturday to put that game behind a paywall and punish the ordinary supporters who really needed to see that.
"Equally, that game should be flaunted because that's the game that everyone's going to remember, that's going to get kids into hurling. It just felt wrong for me."
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