Club Eirne pull plug on Fermanagh funding

In a further setback for Fermanagh football, fundraising group Club Eirne has withdrawn its financial support of the county's senior team.

Club Eirne is a group, run by supporters in Belfast and Dublin, which was set up following Fermanagh's achievement in qualifying for the 2004 All-Ireland semi-finals.

They have raised in the region of €453,000 (£400,000) for the Fermanagh senior footballers between 2006 and 2010. Notably, they met with previous managers Charlie Mulgrew and Malachy O'Rourke who outlined their funding needs.

However, no such meeting took place with current manager John O'Neill and in a letter issued by the group, they now say that they have "very reluctantly decided to withdraw from supporting the county team financially for the immediate future".

The letter also confirmed that Club Eirne "hopes to continue fundraising at a much reduced level, in the hope that its support may be required at some time in the future".

Fermanagh County Board Chairman Peter Carty is a member of Club Eirne, but told BBC Northern Ireland that he was not involved in the decision to withdraw the financial support.

Their move comes at the end of a season in which O'Neill's side has been dogged by poor results, player unrest and a startling claim by captain Barry Owens that members of the County Board wanted them to lose their most recent match.

"It is a sad state of affairs when you have people in the County Board hoping you are going to be beat," Owens told the Fermanagh Herald, following their shock Championship exit at the hands of London.

O'Neill's first year in charge was overshadowed by a player revolt in March, which led to a number of squad members stepping down - including the likes of Tommy McElroy, Niall Bogue and James and Peter Sherry.

The County Board came out and said they "fully supported" O'Neill, and reaffirmed the point that 'all our team managers are appointed to a three-year term.'

But the Lisnaskea Emmetts clubman had a very disappointing Championship campaign with defeats to eventual Ulster finalists Derry and the Exiles. O'Neill had 16 Championship debutants in the extended panel for the Derry game.

Carty said that a full review would be taken when Fermanagh's Championship run concluded. There have been no public statements from the Fermanagh County Board since the loss in London four weeks ago.

Undoubtedly there is mounting pressure on the O'Neill-led management and the County Board, with a proportion of Erneside supporters calling for change.

A Facebook group called 'Save Fermanagh' has been created. They ran a survey in April in which 1,188 people took part. Nearly 80% of the participants said that they wanted O'Neill to resign as manager, and over 83% felt that they have "no confidence" in the current Fermanagh County Board members.

There was also "overwhelming support" for the 11 players who withdrew from the Ernesiders panel following the row with the management during the Allianz Football League.

Even still, there are others on the terraces and in the stands who feel that the players have underperformed under O'Neill and they should be the ones held accountable for the bad run of the form.

Whatever side of the divide they are on, most Fermanagh fans would just like to see some stability restored to the set-up. Only then might the heady days of 2004 be revisited.