Sunday Indo swipes at GUFC again
What is it with the Independent and Galway United? This is not the first time the Sunday Independent/Irish Independent had had a swipe at GUFC. This article is unsigned. Last time the Sindo were having a go at Galway United, it was written by Sligwegian Eamonn Sweeny.
It isn't clear who wrote this. It is clear that it is in the GAA section of the paper - look at the URL.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gael...e-1436271.html
Domestic joke isn't funny anymore
It is putting it mildly to say that it hasn't been a good fortnight for domestic Irish football. For those of a certain age, stories of recession and belt-tightening come with a novelty value attached, yet rumours of football clubs staring down the barrel of a financial gun seem old hat. If they couldn't get their act together during the years of plenty, you could reason, what hope for them in the grim times that apparently lie ahead?
In the last couple of months, the grim reaper has been seen hovering around the gates of Waterford, Cobh, Sligo and Galway and while the spectre of collapse seems to have been averted for the time being, supporters of the said clubs know they face anxious times. With the corpses of Dublin City and Kilkenny City almost still warm in their caskets, how long can it be before the game suffers its next bereavement?
While apportioning blame for the mess is no straightforward task, it was a little disconcerting to listen to the FAI's newly recruited international performance director, Wim Koevermans, talk about the Irish game when he arrived in Dublin two weeks ago. Koevermans spoke nonchalantly about the need for a vibrant domestic game, as if all it required was an anaesthetic to be administered by a simple injection.
Not that the Dutchman can be fingered for a shambles he had no part in creating. What jarred that day at Abbotstown, though, was the jokey, informal atmosphere that prevailed between Koevermans, Packie Bonner and FAI chief executive John Delaney. Koevermans gave the impression he hadn't been particularly well-briefed on the problems faced by Irish football. The FAI, as it does, merely preened in the spotlight, thrilled at their obvious sophistication in securing another foreign appointment.
All we know is that when our old friends Genesis looked at the League in 2005, it concluded it was in dire need of assistance and three years on things have got worse rather than better. Whether clubs showed restraint and common sense, like Kilkenny, or reached for the stars, like Shelbourne, the result has been the same: financial woe and grim, sometimes vain, struggles for survival. The case of Galway United is particularly interesting given the involvement of Nick Leeson. Some within the club and among its supporters took umbrage at coverage of its plight last week which made the obvious link between their problems and the chief executive's past as the world's most notorious financier. They pointed out that, under Leeson's stewardship, the club had significantly increased attendances and created a buzz around Terryland that had been absent for years.
Instantly you see flaws in this line of reasoning. When Leeson arrived in Galway three years ago, his appointment commanded worldwide attention and it was impossible to resist the feeling that his recruitment wasn't, in part a least, something of a marketing gimmick. Whether consciously or not, the club has traded on Leeson's colourful past so it is a touch disingenuous to expect others to forget it now that they have hit choppy waters.
Neither does it seem entirely valid to praise Leeson for increasing attendances when, at the very least, it was needed to justify the vastly increased outlay in expenditure for new and better players, an outlay the club could never afford.
Even if you were to forget Leeson's roguish past, he now seems little more than a failed club director who fell into the black financial hole into which many before have disappeared and more will follow until the rot is finally and irrevocably stopped.
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