Hopes dim of ‘united’ Galway team in Airtricity League

Hopes of a single Galway team to compete in next year’s Airtricity League are starting to dim as one of the four group involved in discussions indicated there has been no progress made in crunch talks.

The Galway United Supporters Trust (GUST), who are hoping to form part of a new club which includes Mervue United, Salthill Devon and the Galway FA, have called a meeting for all supporters next week, where the lack of progress in discussions is due to be explained.

And last night the Galway FA was also scheduled to meet, where their future support for the project was due to be discussed.

FAI Chief Executive John Delaney indicated the association’s preference was to have a single Galway club compete in the League of Ireland, and a report published in October 2012 by Ned O’Connor explained the detailed plans for the team and the future of the game in Connacht.

And despite Delaney’s insistence at the recent FAI AGM that the single Galway club plan “remained on track”, football fans in the city are still at loggerheads as to whether or not football will return to Eamonn Deacy Park next season.

“We are very concerned at this stage of the discussions with the lack of progress being made,” said GUST assistant secretary Ronan Coleman.

“We are nearly at the end of the First Division season and ten months on from Ned O’Connor’s report very little headway has been made. It is a real worry,” he said.

Both Mervue United and Salthill Devon have competed in the First Division since Galway United left the league in 2011, but with Mervue still battling for promotion to the Premier Division, it seems unlikely that an agreement will be reached in the short term.

It is believed that, to date no team structures have been put in place, that no legal entity has been formalised and that no team name has been agreed upon.

The Galway United Supporters Trust meeting takes place next Monday at the Galway Rovers clubhouse in the Claddagh, Galway at 8pm.