Eugene McGee has asserted that many inter-county managers are receiving up to €50,000 per annum and that many club managers are pocketing €100 for every training session.
The man who guided Offaly to the 1982 All-Ireland title made the claims in his autobiography which comes out today.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are also being paid to take charge of club, college, third-level and underage teams in open violation of the GAA's own rules. Amateur, how are you!
I'm not attaching any blame to the people who are receiving money. I am simple pointing out that millions of euro are currently going into the pockets of people involved in training and playing. They can no longer be described as 'amateur', as defined by the GAA's rulebook.
He also alleges that top players are collecting up to €10,000 in commercial promotions. McGee, who is also an Irish Independent columnist, an ex-TV pundit, the former editor of the Longford Leader and the man who drove the introduction of the black card, says that such managers and players can no longer be considered 'amateur' in any real sense.
Leading players can collect anything between €1,000 and €10,000 for taking part in commercial promotions, including media-related ones, such as television.
The GAA has sanctioned these sorts of payments in recent years so players are no longer amateurs in the correct sense of the word.
Though he does not make the comparison, the situation as he outlines it, is reminiscent of that which prevailed in rugby union in the 1980s, the fabled 'shamateurism' era. McGee predicts that the GAA will be professional in a decades' time, suggesting that a 'limited form of pay for play' will operate.
