THE GALWAY UNITED Supporters Trust (GUST) is involved in ongoing discussions with the FAI and the county’s other two Airticity League teams in a bid to form an alliance.
The group announced last month that they would be severing ties with the club and submitted their own licence application to participate in this season’s First Division.
However, with rumours emerging that their plans are unlikely to meet the FAI’s minimum standards and just six weeks until the league begins, GUST are examining other avenues and have approached Salthill Devon and Mervue United about the possibility of achieving a merger.
Preliminary talks with Salthill were held in Galway city on Tuesday evening but according to GUST Public Relations Officer Vincent O’Connor, a deal couldn’t be agreed upon.
We went to the meeting with our proposals and they came with theirs but unfortunately neither party was satisfied with what was being put on the table,” O’Connor told TheScore this afternoon.
“There are plans for discussions in the near future, however.”
Mervue, meanwhile, have made a verbal offer to link up and they are due to sit down with GUST in the coming days.
If some middle ground can be found, it would see the clubs combine their names (eg Galway Mervue United), while they would be likely to keep the maroon and white colours and Terryland would almost certainly be the new entity’s home.
“Terryland Park is a fantastic stadium and is full of history so it would be a real shame if there wasn’t Airtricity League there this season,” added O’Connor.
A failure to find a solution would be disastrous as it would effectively spell the end of Galway United after 75 years in existence and 35 seasons participating in the League of Ireland.
Nick leeson take a bow.
The Galway United directors and the FAI have killed League of Ireland football in Galway.
It seems that GUST had their application in order and were raring to go, with the backing of countless business people and politicians from the city and county, not to mention the thousands that signed a petition in support of GUST, but a technicality was used against them by the FAI, one that was ignored in the case of Cork City FORAS and Derry City.
The FAI is rotten at its core. They are attempting to clean up the mess that they are as responsible for as the directors of GU Football Club Ltd. The so-called “merger” the association are trying to impose upon GUST will result in one of the parish clubs swallowing up a fund-raising committee and possibly slapping Galway at the end of the name of the team fielded in the First Division. Member clubs of the Galway FA would see themselves turn in to feeder clubs of teams that they compete against at junior and juvenile level. The work that has been done by GUST to include junior clubs for mutual benefit would be lost, turning them against the new entity.
All of this is in addition to the fact that the vast majority of Terryland regulars would rather forget about Terryland on Friday nights than give a cent to Devon or Mervue, who have everything to gain from this situation..
The Galway United directors and the FAI have killed League of Ireland football in Galway.
It seems that GUST had their application in order and were raring to go, with the backing of countless business people and politicians from the city and county, not to mention the thousands that signed a petition in support of GUST, but a technicality was used against them by the FAI, one that was ignored in the case of Cork City FORAS and Derry City.
The FAI is rotten at its core. They are attempting to clean up the mess that they are as responsible for as the directors of GU Football Club Ltd. The so-called “merger” the association are trying to impose upon GUST will result in one of the parish clubs swallowing up a fund-raising committee and possibly slapping Galway at the end of the name of the team fielded in the First Division. Member clubs of the Galway FA would see themselves turn in to feeder clubs of teams that they compete against at junior and juvenile level. The work that has been done by GUST to include junior clubs for mutual benefit would be lost, turning them against the new entity.
All of this is in addition to the fact that the vast majority of Terryland regulars would rather forget about Terryland on Friday nights than give a cent to Devon or Mervue, who have everything to gain from this situation.
Agree with everything you say there apart from maybe the last paragraph – I don’t know if genuine Galway United supporters will turn their back on any new ‘merged’ club, maybe they will, I don’t know. But sure as hell the version of Galway United FC that has competed over the last 3 seasons was in dire need of a ‘shake-up’.
Great point about all other Galway clubs turning into feeder clubs for teams that they directly compete against at juvenile and junior level.
Whatever happens I hope that something can be sorted out over the coming few weeks. Would be an awful shame to see some form of Galway United disappearing off the FAI map and Terryland lying fallow. Look to Cork City for a great example.
@James Corr (Tried to reply directly to your post…)
The supporters of what was Galway United / Galway Rovers understand that despite the fact that GUST had no control over the club, they were the heart and soul of it, running the match nights, organising training facilities and transport when nobody would deal with the club, keeping it running, generally paying debts the club left after it left, right and centre. Running fund-raisers, raffles, events etc. When the board warned employees of the club not to deal with GUST on day and then directed them to GUST for their wages the next, you get some idea of the lunacy involved.
Members of the trust are known all around the county and indeed the country among LOI folk as people with integrity and nothing but the interests of Galway football as a whole in their hearts, you might say the opposite of those who held ownership of the club.
The Galway United of the last number of years is dead and buried and nobody will mourn the passing, but I am just devastated that the people who clearly have the ability and desire to run a club for the city and county, responsibly and with building a legacy for Galway in mind, are being shafted.
Regarding your point about Cork City and also about Terryland lying fallow…
Cork City FORAS submitted their application for the league after the deadline had passed, as did Derry City. Just as FORAS had done, GUST were doing their utmost to free themselves from the shackles of lunatic owners and re-build a club based in reality and one with integrity. The FAI’s well-known policy of one rule for a select few and a different one for the unfortunate others is alive and well.
I’m sure that the presence of a man with strong ties with Salthill Devon on the FAI Club Licensing Committee had no influence on the decision whatsoever… nor did it have anything to do with 3 Galway club competing in the league in the first place.
I would have no problem with Terryland being empty on a Friday night. I would rather that than see the abomination that the FAI think is the solution. Terryland is the hub of Galway junior football, held in trust by the Galway FA, so it will not lie fallow. It would hurt to not see a true representative of Galway line out there every other weekend, but I would rather that than the current alternative being tabled. GUST or BUST, as has been said.
Fair play Sean, you know your stuff. Club was surely run into the ground from the top.
I wish you and GUST the very best of luck getting as you put it ‘a true representative of Galway’ city and county togging out in Terryland in next season’s LOI.
I think all that can be done now James is for GUST to finish up the sham “negotiations” and just leave the FAI and the parish clubs to it. See how clever the FAI feel next year.
That is the only thing I could back myself at the moment.
Galway United lost a lot of casual supporters in the last few years. As mentioned above the greater Galway area is too small to support 3 SUCCESSFUL soccer teams. Some were also lost to Connacht Rugby and GAA. To the casual sports fan the product on offer is far superior at the rugby where the opposition teams are often full of internationals. The move a few years back to summer soccer in LOI also brought Galway Utd games into direct competition with club and county GAA matches in both football and Hurling. I remember in the mid 1990′s Galway Utd got a crowd of over 6,000 to a league match against Cork city (which was played at Galwegians ground in Glenina due to Terryland being too small at the time).
This year over 9,000 were at the Connacht v Toulouse game in the sports grounds. Last weekend I was away in Toulouse and met dedicated supporters of Mervue and Galway United. It seems clear to me if Soccer in the city is to win back supporters in any great numbers a 3 way merger at LOI level is the only option.
No question that Galway can’t support 3 successful teams. It can’t even support one, not without a team that represents the whole county, not a parish that is largely indifferent to its existence, which is currently the case with Mervue and Devon.
The summer soccer argument is neither here nor the there. Factors other than that are responsible for the demise of Galway United, namely the board of directors of GU Football Club Ltd. and the FAI.
The only reason Devon and Mervue would sit in a room with GUST to talk about this is because they are being forced from above by the FAI.
GUST are the victims of the FAI applying rules how they please. The reason the FAI gave for the denial of GUST was not a problem for Derry or Cork. If a long-standing affiliate of Salthill Devon FC wasn’t on the FAI Club Licensing Committee, I wonder would we even be having this conversation?
How can a city and surrounds with 100000 odd people afford to have 3 teams in the league anyway?
Galway United drew support from all over County Galway, some putting the split very roughly at 50/50 between city and county, maybe even weighted more towards the county. The population as of the census last year for the county was a quarter of a million.
I agree that there should not be 3 or even 2 teams from Galway in the league, but Devon and Mervue applied for the A Championship and were subsequently promoted to the First Division. The right they have be there isn’t in question. GUST have watched on as the club they worked so hard for has been destroyed. Now that they have tried to start again, the FAI are trying to fix their own mess and consequently are making it worse.