No insurance cover for unregistered players
As I understand, since last year the GAA registration year now runs from 1 January rather than 1 April and this means that all players must be registered on or after 1 January in order to be covered under the Player Injury Fund. I've been told that some clubs pre-register all of their players on 1 January and allow them to pay afterwards but if I do this in Foireann, the players will receive emails confirming their registration and the mentors/coaches won't know who has actually paid membership or not for the year. I'd really like to know if this is factually correct and, if so, how do other clubs manage keeping track.
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The GAA registration year has, as long as I have been involved at this end of things - 15 or so years now, always been the calendar year. Whilst a rigorous reading of the rules does allow for the April date to have some significance in some respects (too long to go into here), the eligibility for player injury scheme certainly has in the past number of years (not just this year) been based on the calendar year and April 1st has had no significance.
In our club, we don't "pre-register" anybody. We ensure that mentors are aware of the potential liability they might expose themselves to if they were to break the rules and allow a player who is not registered in the calendar year to train or play. And of course we advise players and parents/guardians.
So in our club, each player, or their parent/guardian in the case of a child, or some person they appoint to act on their behalf (essentially as an attorney who is then personally-responsible for the accuracy of what they do) registers the player.It is however a struggle, and I am always nagging ......
If a club were to register any member under other circumstances for the purposes of being able to claim a player had been registered at a time they get injured so as to gain benefits under the injury scheme, then I'd advise they get legal advice (and to be honest our club would feel that we're unfairly paying more into the injury scheme because of it paying out in such cases). Consider also a liability case - the following case (just as one example): You "pre-register" a child (just to make it extreme). Then later the child gets very seriously injured as a result of something where it could be shown that the club has contributed to the cause. But you disagree. So it goes to court, and your barrister argues that the child was registered and thus the case has no standing on the basis of "you can't sue yourself". But the child's barrister argues that the child's parents/guardian didn't register the child. Would you having registered the child have any standing at all? I'm only asking the question. I think the answer is relatively obvious, but I'm not a lawyer and I am not giving legal advice.
So anyway, our club is rigorous that way. And we wish the GAA were more rigorous about identifying and weeding our other practices (surely a club's players all registering on the same day - Jan 1st indeed - is a co-incidence so amazing as to be detectable).0 -
Remember prior to online registration we had to have players or their parent/guardians sign forms - for the same reasons.
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Thank you for taking the time to reply Niall. If I'm understanding you correctly then, the situation is that players are uninsured until they pay membership and are then duly registered, so if a player has a match on the 10th of January - and is injured during that match - but doesn't pay their membership and become registered until the 11th of January, they are excluded from cover under the Player Injury Fund.
If so, is there no 'grace period' allowed to give members time to fund their memberships? Are they expected to pay membership on 1 January each year or not train/play until they do?
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Hi Orla.
I am careful to explain that I am not an authoritative source of information on the matter, and you should not rely on any information I give you. However you can read for yourself the information that the GAA publishes, e.g. on the page numbered 2 at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/ng0w4sthebgbdtji9rdz.pdf.
I very very strongly advise players in our club to register for the calendar year before training or playing, and I very very strongly advise our mentors not to permit them if they haven't. And I bring it up at almost every club meeting at this time of year.
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And Orla. Injury scheme is not the only concern. So also is liability, and whether the injured party (whether a player or not and whether in a game or in some other voluntary activity in the club grounds) can sue the club in a case a dispute were to arise on responsibility. Again, please don't rely on me, but get professional advice.
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And if that is not all restrictive enough Olga (sorry I had misspelled your name up to now - old man eyes), that document I referred you to in turn refers to compliance with the official guide. That is, as I write,published at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/i4tbkt6pyyfyycx42e2u.pdf. One (not the only one) of its relevant clauses is on page numbered 15 stating that "A Player must be registered at least three days before a game."
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Thanks a lot for all the information Niall. This is great to know but I still have no idea what the guidance of the GAA is in relation to unregistered players. It would be great to be able to find out the official advice as to whether a player must pay membership on 1 January or stay away from training and matches until they do.
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Hi Olga.
To my layman reading, the guidance (indeed policies and rules) of the GAA is very clear from what the GAA publishes. Ideally read all of the material to which I referred, but if you like you will get 99% of your question answered by just reading two pages:- page numbered 2 at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/ng0w4sthebgbdtji9rdz.pdf, and
- page numbered 15 at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/i4tbkt6pyyfyycx42e2u.pdf
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Thanks for providing this information Niall and for the links to the published information which, as you say, is very clear. I am very reluctant to 'pre register' our club's players as I can see that it's very clearly not the correct way to proceed, and not what Foireann was designed and built for, however, the reality of the situation is that it takes several months from opening up registrations on 1 January to get a majority of players paid up and registered in the correct way, and all of the information I'm getting back from various sources is pointing towards 'pre registration' being the way most clubs in the country are operating. I really don't know what else I can do except to 'pre register' as most of the teams are now back training or will be very soon.
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Thanks Olga.
Consider if there were evidence of a significant number of clubs claiming electronically in Foireann that members are registered even though those members have not fullfilled their Annual Subscription requirement in accordance with Article 6.2 of the Club Constitution and Articles (see page numbered 14 of https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/i4tbkt6pyyfyycx42e2u.pdf), and are doing so for the purpose of claiming eligibility for injury payouts or competition participation prior to that requirement being fullfilled. I am not disagreeing with you - I am just careful in my words which are published here - I don't want to state that clubs are doing this.
Well then if somebody makes a mistake in our club on account of an unregistered player, then I'll be asking for that evidence and using that to make the case that our club and our players should not be disadvantaged relative to those who practice otherwise based on the evidence.This is the best I can do in the circumstances.
Regards,
Niall.
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In our club also Olga, if a player (or parent/guardian in the case of a child) has difficulty getting the money to register, we find another club member who is willing to gift them that money. And we keep it anonymous in both direction so nobody feels a return favor is ever owing or owed. No records are kept, and the only person who ever knows is me and I tell nobody and my memory is terrible too. I'd say though I can count with the fingers of one hand the number of times it has happened over the past 15 years (we have a small club).
Having received the gift, the player (or parent/mentor on their behalf) registers themselves in the normal way.
So having taken care of that financial aspect, we know of no reason why a player (or their parent/guardian on their behalf) has to delay their registration for several months after commencing training/playing.0 -
Olga,
Would any of your sources - those who advocate this "pre-registration" procedure - be willing to have it published (here or elsewhere) who they are, and that what they advocate is the position of the GAA and the administrators of the Injury Fund? This would presumably mean that those people would have to be authorized by the GAA or the Injury Fund administrators to publish such a position.
If I were to see such authorized position published, and seemingly rendering existing published material out of date, then of course I also would consider changing what we do in our club.0 -
Hi Niall,
Just want your opinion on a situation that has occurred with my brother. My brother has played for a team since U13. He has represented the team and the county team all the way up until u20s. 2 years ago he was struck unprovoked by a player during a u20 championship club match. His jaw was broke and needs major reconstruction on his teeth which cost thousands. He had paid membership/registration. The day his jaw was broke we rang his manager to call the referee at the time and inform him about my brothers injuries which he failed to do. This was because my brother has never been registered for this club for the last 5 years and they would have to forfeit the win. My brother has been to the dentist frequently over the last 15 months to fix his teeth and jaw. An invoice was sent to the club to pay for the dentist fees and they say there is a cap at €4500 the work so far is up to €7000 and this is only the beginning and they have deducted his loss of earnings out of the €4500. Have you any of advice of what we should do as he was an unregistered player. Since this has occurred his local club has approached him and informed us that there is no evidence of his registration with any club. Therefore he is able to play with his local club with no county board meeting or CCC transfer meeting/request. What is your opinion on this?
Thanks
Cormac0 -
Hi Cormac.
I'm very sorry to hear of this.
I'm just a club registrar who does his best to ensure that players in my club register, and I'm not qualified to give advice on a specific case like this. I would suggest consulting a legal professional for advice, e.g. a solicitor who may have been used by the family over time and whom you trust to give qualified and sensible advice. Obviously there are disadvantages to an adversarial approach, and so I'm sure everybody would wish to avoid that, but a good solicitor should help your brother decide what to do.In general, I would advise every player to check that they are indeed registered in Foireann. In clubs whose members log into Foireann directly (as to be honest I would advise all clubs to take that approach), a player (or their parent/guardian if underage) can log into Foireann and check that they are registered for the calendar year.
My best wishes to your brother in this treatment and recovery, and I hope for the best resolution of the matter.
Regards,
Niall.0
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