A motion which would have allowed non-GAA sports to be played at Croke Park narrowly failed to get sufficient support at the association's annual Congress on Saturday.

The motion to change rule 42 just failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority by two votes.

There were 176 votes for change, 89 against.

The closeness of the result had some commentators predicting that the result could be overturned at next year's annual Congress.

However, former GAA president Quinn told the BBC that the association's financial circumstances may not be the same in 12 months.

"There's no doubt that the vote was very close," said Quinn.

"Whether it would be as close in a year's time when the financial imperative are different, we'll just have to wait and see," he added.

Saturday's vote was a controversial affair with the GAA's current president Sean McCague, amid much confusion, refusing to agree to a request for a recount from motion proposers Roscommon.

McCague had initially appeared to agree to the Roscommon request but following an intervention by Cork county board secretary Frank Murphy, it was announced that the original result would stand.

The GAA president said afterwards that he had "misunderstood" the Roscommon request and had thought that they were "accepting the result".