Galway Utd’s woes continue both on and off the pitch

Date Published: {J}

Galway United 3

UCD 4

Keith Kelly

Galway United’s season is fast taking on the look of an extended wake as the club struggles to meet its obligations off the pitch, and is failing miserably on it, with a relegation play-off looking more and more certain as the weeks go by.

The life-support machine for the club is inching ever closer to flat-lining, with Friday night being the club’s 15th defeat on the bounce in the league. In the greater scheme of things, however, that is of less importance than the fact that players went without their full wages for a fifth consecutive week.

For some, that won’t be an issue for too much longer, with Steve Feeney, Brian Cash, Joe Yoffe, Karl Moore and Greg Fleming all believed to be on the verge of joining Shaun Kelly in leaving a club that is only being held together by a group of loyal and hardworking supporters, and is is expected that at least one more player, and possibly two, will leave in the coming week.

The supporter-run management committee are loathe to go into specifics about the financial mess – and the cause of it – at the club, but it is believed that they are only now coming to terms with the scale of the debts they have inherited since they took over the running of United earlier this year. And with attendances as low as they are, the club is barely treading water in a bid to pay its debts.

United are only competing in the league after a successful appeal to be granted a Premier Division licence, but with the way the season has unfolded on and off the field, it is difficult to see the FAI Licensing Committee granting the club a licence for next season, which would likely result in the end of the club. It should be said that the club is confident of being awarded a licence in 2012, and says that no matter what level it finds itself playing it, it will continue to operate.

The debts are a major concern, but it is believed the Management Committee has also uncovered other problems at the club, and if true, this could see United in hot water if the FAI decided to take a hardline stance on the matter, although considering this refers to last season, such an action would be extreme.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.