socialism - a sporting chance

The BBC webpage has a story about the Gaelic Athletic Association and describes it as part of the local Irish community. Unlike other sports these days such as football and rugby and cricket its a volunteer organisation, which doesn't pay its top players anything. The GAA survives and thrives as an amateur game.

"We are conscious that we are an association built on a wholly voluntary movement," said Christy Cooney, president of the GAA.

"It's all about people putting their time and effort into the club for free," said Stephen Corrigan, a teacher who plays for Kiltegan senior Gaelic football squad.
All auxilary labour associated with the clubs is also unpaid.

The Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland was founded in 1884 and now has over 1 million members in 2,600 clubs .

Unlike football, clubs cannot be bought and sold and there can be no private club owners.
On the administrative side, club members elect an executive committee to carry out the running of the club on an annual basis.
At a community level, local competent professional people who are sympathetic to the GAA often do administrative jobs, such as a local physiotherapist who rubs down bruised muscles or local accountant becoming the club treasurer.
At the higher echelons of the GAA, such members must vacate their post after four years.

Dr David Hassan of the University of Ulster explains how the "The clubs and games are based in the community and operate on behalf of those people who are based in the community. If the grass roots say some policy proposal is a move in the wrong direction, the administrators cannot just say - as may be the case in English soccer - 'This is just business'."

"Many people have predicted the demise of the GAA model, but it is actually getting stronger..." says Hassan

So once again when those Doubting Thomases and cynics declare that people are unable of running society without the motivation of money or only through the coercive authority of their betters we can point them in the direction of existing examples of successful democratic voluntarily run co-operation even in the competitive fields of team sports .