Talks continue on the future of LOI football in Galway

Date Published: {J}

Keith Kelly

Officials from Mervue United are set to meet with representatives of the Galway United Supporters Trust (GUST) today for talks about joining forces for the 2012 Airtricity League campaign; talks which will be overseen by the CEO of the FAI, John Delaney.

The move comes just three days after a similar meeting was held between GUST and a delegation from Salthill Devon, at which a formal proposal was made by the Drom-based club towards accommodating the GUST group for the season ahead.

The approaches by both clubs to the fans’ group comes after the FAI made it known that, following the withdrawal of Galway United from the licensing process for the coming season, and the rejection of the licence application made by GUST, the association wanted to see a club playing in Terryland Park in the coming season in a maroon jersey and with the name ‘Galway’ in the title.

An open public meeting was held by GUST in the Galway Rovers hall in the Claddagh at Wednesday night where Galway United fans were told that GUST had been informed by the FAI that its licence application had been rejected on what appears to be the flimsiest of technicalities.

Initially, the reasons given were that the failure was down to the fact that GUST had not been formally invited to make a licence application, and that the application was late by eight days.

At a subsequent meeting, GUST was informed by the FAI that the reason its application was rejected was because it had missed the submission deadline, but the FAI has previous in throwing a blind eye to dates in the calendar, having granted licences to both Limerick 37 and Sporting Fingal when their applications had been made after the submission deadline in recent years.

Wednesday night’s meeting saw GUST officials outline the proposal made to it by Salthill Devon, and the bones of the offer being made by Mervue United – the initial offer from the Fahy’s Field-based club was an informal verbal one ahead of a meeting of its Board of Directors last (Thursday) night.

The Salthill Devon offer would see the club’s Airtricity League side rebranded as SD Galway FC, which would play in Terryland Park with a maroon and white ‘home’ jersey, and retaining Devon’s own club colours of blue, white and navy as the ‘away’ kit.

The newly-named team would be run under the rules of governance of Salthill Devon, with GUST offered positions on the Airtricity League sub-committee of the club, one of five sub-committees which runs operations at Devon, and which answers to an overall club board. The arrangement would be reviewed after the 2012 season.

That proposal was hammered out after a long night of discussions in the Ardilaun Hotel on Tuesday night which saw GUST delegates in one room, Salthill Devon representatives in another, and officials from the FAI – including Delaney – going between both rooms to try and broker a deal.

Mervue United told the FAI they were unable to meet with it and GUST on Tuesday evening, and it was thought that meant it was ruling itself out of any talks, but late in the night, contact was made by Mervue saying it was interested in opening lines of communication between it and GUST.

As a result of that, an informal offer was made to GUST the following day inviting it to join forces with the east-side club, which would see Mervue rename its Airtricity League side as Galway & Mervue United FC.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.