GAA PRESIDENT Jarlath Burns has insisted that he is ‘totally against’ any bans of alcohol issued by clubs or management across the country.
Burns doesn’t drink alcohol himself as he is apart of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association.
The boss has credited his sobriety as one of the factors that allowed him to play football until he was 52.
However, he does not believe that banning alcohol is the way forward for players and feels that binge drinking is ‘the big problem’.
Burns told Sean O’Rourke’s Insights podcast: “The difficulty is not so much people drinking before matches. It’s the drink bans.
“I’m totally against drink bans. Because what happens is lads go off drink for five or six weeks, or maybe three, four months and when it’s all over they go on a big binge.
“It’s binge drinking that’s the big problem.
“If we could have a culture where lads can have a few glasses of wine, or go out for a night and maybe have a few too many, so what?
“That’s okay, that’s part of enjoying alcohol. I have a serious issue with drink bans.”
Drinking bans in the GAA have been a cause for debate for some time now.
Some clubs have been harsher than others on the requirements set for their players.
At the beginning of this year, Galway star TJ Brennan came out to express disappointment after a charter drawn up by his club Clarinbridge made its way into the public domain.
The document — which listed ‘requirements needed from players’ for the 2024 season — was put together in conjunction with members of the club’s senior hurling panel and management.
Holiday restrictions and a drink ban during the championship were among the contents of the charter, which was widely criticised after being circulated on social media.
Admitting that it caused ‘a whirlwind’ after being leaked, Brennan added: “We were just trying to improve ourselves on the given year and obviously it was never meant to leave the group.
“That’s probably the most disappointing part of the whole thing.”
Having been runners-up to Kenneth Burke’s St Thomas’ side in the 2021 Galway SHC, Clarinbridge reached the semi-finals 12 months later.
However, they failed to make it beyond the quarter-finals in 2023.
Asked if he was surprised that the issue caused such a stir, Brennan — who is currently preparing for UL’s defence of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup — said: “Disappointed it got out but I never thought it would go as far as it went personally.
“Look, it’s gone now, it’s water under the bridge and you just move on.”