Posted online: Oct 27th, 2008

Letter to full-time GAA Donegal County Secretary Charlie O’Donnell from Corporate Club Donegal

On behalf of Corporate Club Donegal we write to seek clarification on what role, if any, the County Board envisages for Corporate Club Donegal if it wishes it to
continue through to 2009 and beyond.
As you know, the present Corporate Club was set up for a three year period with a target to raise £150,000 per annum for 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons. For the past two years Corporate Club Donegal has contributed approximately £300,000 to the County Board from its fifty odd members.
The purpose of the funding is to enable the County Board to create training and coaching
structures for the Minor, Under 21 and Senior County Teams and to enable the Board
to meet the costs and expenses of Players, Managers, Coaches and Back-Up Teams in
delivering training programmes which would help the players realise their full
potential.
Over recent months much has been written and spoken about the selection of the
Senior County Team Manager and their Management and Support Team. Questions
have been raised about the way in which the County Senior Team Manager was reappointed and about who took or influenced decisions in relation to other candidates
for the job.
A number of candidates including former County players felt aggrieved
that the selection process had been biased and prejudged on the last occasion the job
was filled.
Articles in the Donegal News, Donegal Peoples Press and Donegal Democrat in recent weeks have been critical of the selection process and a number of them have raised questions about the role of Club Donegal in the making of decisions on the selection of a Senior Team Manager.
As the selection process for the Senior Team Manager, is underway again it is important for the County Board to clarify that Corporate Club Donegal has no role in selecting or influencing the selection of the Senior Team Manager and never had; The selection of a Senior Team Manager is a job for those who are elected and appointed by the Clubs to run the affairs of the County Board.
Our role in Club Donegal is to raise funds and to receive periodic and annual reports
on the expenditure of the £150,000 each year on the coaching and training programmes for which it was being used.
Any suggestions or innuendo that Club Donegal seeks to influence the selection of a
County Senior Team Manager or that it may not give the same level of support to a
native Donegal Manager are inaccurate, mischievous and insulting to Club members.
The members of Corporate Club Donegal will be pleased to meet with Officers of the
County Board and a new Senior Team Manager in due course, to consider the future
of Club Donegal.
Part of this consideration will obviously be the openness of the process for selecting a Senior Team Manager and the credibility of the coaching and training programmes in supporting layers at different stages of their development to realise their full potential. So too will be the process for de-selecting a County Team Manager.
Corporate Club Donegal members had enormous respect for the professional manner with which Brian McIver treated them and the players and were dismayed by the unprofessional and humiliating manner in which he was de-selected.
In saying this, Club Donegal had no act or part in his appointment or in his reappointment.
The setting up of the present structure of Club Donegal pre-dated his
original appointment.
Finally, we are asking you to read this statement to the Executives of the County
Board and to release it to the local media, in the interest of accuracy and fairness to
members of a Club formed only for the purpose of giving significant financial help for
the work and efforts of players and officials who give their time voluntarily to
preserve and promote gaelic games in the County

Signed:

Michael McLoone (Chairman)
Barry Jackson
Liam Clancy
Feda O’Donnell
Patrick Doherty
Michael McGinley