HICKEY TAKING A STAND

Dubs great David among the GAA figures calling for an end to Association's sponsorship dealings with Allianz

- Karl O'KANE

"IT'S in the open now - they can't say they don't know about it," says Dr. David Hickey.

The way the Dublin legend sees it, the GAA have to act.

All eyes are now firmly fixed on the Association after the 'Drop Allianz' campaign delivered a letter to Croke Park during the week calling for the GAA to sever all ties with Allianz Ireland.

Some 780 high profile former and current players is a lobby that isn't going to go away any time soon.

It indicates the depth of feeling across the GAA and the country over Israel's ongoing onslaught in Gaza.

If the hierarchy in Croke Park plan to try and ignore this one, hoping that it will go away, they have a unique problem - the Association belongs to its members.

Hickey believes the pressure will be too much and the GAA will sever ties with Allianz Ireland.

"The New York Jets and the New York Giants disassociated themselves from Allianz because of the Holocaust - and they are businessmen," he says.

"The GAA are amateurs. We handed the letter in. They know about us. The usual thing is a lot of nice words and then no action. They have to change their attitude. I think they will.

"We have been ignored long enough. They are slowly taking notice of us now.

"Hopefully it will start a snowball effect and people will say this is no longer supportable. We have to do something active.

"There are two GAAs. There is the GAA and there is Croke Park. The GAA are the 500,000 members.

"They (Croke Park) are not representing the people who put them in there - and just like our Government, that has to change.

"They are at a crossroads now. They either get rid of this business lifestyle that they have adopted and become a grassroots association again or they are dead."