Niall Carew: ‘Jarlath Burns must look after the smaller teams rather than digging boot into them’

The only way for new GAA president Jarlath Burns to cut inter-county expenditure is to “make sure that everybody has the same amount of money to run their team”, according to Carlow football boss Niall Carew.

Protecting the Association’s amateur status is a priority for Burns during his three-year term and this includes dealing with “unsustainable” expenditure on inter-county set-ups.

Burns reckons that the culture around county preparations must change after costs reached a whopping €40million in 2023 and Carew is adamant that each county must have the same budget to work with.

“If he’s going to do it right, what he should be doing is making sure that everybody has the same money to run their team. That’s the way he has to do it,” Carew told Independent.ie.

“He can’t go and start an à la carte menu and start cherry picking things, if you’re going to do it then do it right and make sure that everybody has the same amount of money to run their team,” he added.

“I know what I have to run my team and it’s not near what other teams have, and I include teams in Division 4.

“If he does make a stab at it, he can’t go after the smaller counties, that’d be a disaster.

“He should be helping the smaller counties that don’t have the finance to drive it on and get to the next level. I would hope that he’d look after the smaller teams rather than digging the boot into them.”

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