A tough road ahead to get fans behind new Galway FC

Inside Track with John McIntyre

The impression is that Galway has been devoid League of Ireland football for the past two seasons and though that perspective is insulting to both Mervue United and Salthill Devon, the reality is that when the new Galway FC make their debut next March, many local soccer fans will feel energised for the first time since the sad demise of Galway United.

It hasn’t been an easy process to re-establish a flagship team for football in Galway and, at times over the past 18 months, such were the local politics, vested interests and personality clashes that it appeared a new club would never get off the ground. Furthermore, the collapse of Galway United had burned a number of individuals and companies financially, leading to a near initial collapse of goodwill towards efforts to form a replacement Galway entity.

The FAI’s clumsy and dictatorial efforts to remove Salthill and Mervue from the playing pitch was a cornerstone of the bigger picture and though both clubs were treated appallingly in terms of natural justice, their exit from the League of Ireland is a financial blessing in disguise. Frankly, neither Mervue nor Salthill could continue indefinitely to bankroll teams which were largely devoid of fans and, as a result, couldn’t generate worthwhile streams of revenue through the turnstiles.

Declan McDonnell, the ‘controller’ of Mervue, would never publically concede that the club was risking bankruptcy by staying in the Airtricity League, but there are only so many lotto tickets which can so sold and going back to the same individuals time and again is not a viable long term proposition. For all that, there is something intrinsically wrong about basically kicking Mervue and Salthill out of the League of Ireland – a right both clubs had originally earned on the playing field.

Mervue, in fact, have just completed their most progressive season in the First Division and managed to make the promotion/relegation play-off. Under the guidance of Johnny Glynn, they were playing an attractive brand of football and had finally found their feet at this level. Leaving aside the financial burden of running the team, Mervue looked to have a future ahead of them even if their hardcore fan base would struggle to reach 200.

Ultimately, the way has now been cleared for Galway FC to have an unimpeded tug on the heartstrings of the local soccer fraternity. Unsurprisingly, there was a big turnout for the official launch of the club recently, including new manager Tommy Dunne, the Comer brothers, Luke and Brian, who are the team’s sponsors, and John Delaney, the Chief Executive of the FAI. Galway FC is going to be run under a co-operative structure, embracing the Galway FA, GUST, Mervue Utd and Salthill Devon, with Bernie O’Connell the club chairman.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.