Westmeath may not be able to field teams next year

Pictured above: Westmeath GAA chairman Billy Foley, Ted Wright of Writech (sponsors) and Vincent Maguire launching the new Club Iarmhí draw which will take place in September.

Westmeath GAA chairman Billy Foley has issued a stark warning about the consequences of the continuing crowd restrictions at GAA matches.

Many people in the GAA fraternity were hoping that the limit on crowds at outdoor events would be raised to 500 by the Government earlier this week. But the limit of 200 remains in place, leaving Westmeath GAA's revenue stream severely curtailed, with Foley describing the decision as a "shattering" blow.

"The reality is that if this continues, there will be no Westmeath teams in 2021. We will not have the money to run county teams in 2021, we'll struggle on until the end of this year and God only knows what happens after that," Foley told the Irish Independent yesterday (Wednesday).

The establishment of a training base or centre of excellence for Westmeath county teams has been a key objective for Foley since he became chairman. However, any such plans have been shelved with the Covid-19 pandemic having a huge impact on the county's financial situation.

"We were trying to get training fields and we were budgeting for a surplus this year, but we're going to run into something like a €200,000 loss. That is not sustainable and that's the reality that we're facing," Foley continued.

"Ourselves and Offaly, Laois, Clare and Carlow are very similar in that we do run the two codes (football and hurling) as best we can. The reality is that we will not be running county teams next year because we will not be able to afford to do so.

"The future for the GAA is bleak. We could have ten teams playing for the Sam Maguire and maybe eight for the Liam MacCarthy next year. It's shattering to any county but small counties in particular, the big counties will probably survive all right.

"They talked about an all-Ireland approach, there's 400 people allowed into games up the North, double of what's here. It's not an all-Ireland approach and it makes our task as a county board almost impossible."

Verbal abuse

This year's Westmeath club championship games have been all-ticket affairs, and there has been anger among some supporters who have been unable to gain entry.

"We have done everything with regards to the safety procedures. We ran our games in the past two weeks all-ticket; all the county board officials have been abused by people looking to get into games. It's inexplicable that only 200 people can still be allowed into large stadiums, " Foley added, when speaking to the Irish Independent.