Clubs divided over future LOI format?

The real issue of not having 3 clubs is down to there not being enough players to have one competitive team, let alone 3. Last year there were only 2 teams and they were the 2 worst in the First Division by a fair way.

Mervue seem to have made a fair stab at establishing themselves as a LoI club but only represent a tiny area of the city and haven't really tried to develop further. Whether this is sustainable is questionable.

Salthill Devon appear to have little to no interest in the LoI as a whole. Look at their website any weekend and you'll struggle to find any mention of the LoI side and no promotion of games. Last season they said they'd have a 1 year trial with their LoI wing rebranded as SD Galway and playing in Terryland. They put this proposal to their members a week after their opening game to the season.
During the season they didn't promote the games around the city and didn't seem to have any appetite at building a supporter base.
To me it seems Salthill are in the league because Mervue joined. Now they probably feel that by hanging in there they can get some sort of pay-off as the FAI will need them in agreement to facilitate a new club.

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Originally Posted by JC_GUFC

The real issue of not having 3 clubs is down to there not being enough players to have one competitive team, let alone 3. Last year there were only 2 teams and they were the 2 worst in the First Division by a fair way.

Mervue seem to have made a fair stab at establishing themselves as a LoI club but only represent a tiny area of the city and haven't really tried to develop further. Whether this is sustainable is questionable.

Salthill Devon appear to have little to no interest in the LoI as a whole. Look at their website any weekend and you'll struggle to find any mention of the LoI side and no promotion of games. Last season they said they'd have a 1 year trial with their LoI wing rebranded as SD Galway and playing in Terryland. They put this proposal to their members a week after their opening game to the season.
During the season they didn't promote the games around the city and didn't seem to have any appetite at building a supporter base.
To me it seems Salthill are in the league because Mervue joined. Now they probably feel that by hanging in there they can get some sort of pay-off as the FAI will need them in agreement to facilitate a new club.

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Bang on the money JC. As for GUST not having a clue how to run a Loi club absolute rubbish The biggest fundraisers and hardest working volunteers who have been involved in LOI soccer in Galway are still invoved with GUST the people who actually give a ****e about LOI Football in Galway and are not in the swinging micky competition the other 2 clubs indulge in.

The nlec should have 3members from the clubs on it and the biggest investor in the loi are the fans

Simpler days...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...12092759_n.jpg

I wish Kilkenny city could come back..

5 of the 7 rows has a club that is now defunct or permanently damaged... Pretty damning.

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Originally Posted by JC_GUFC

The real issue of not having 3 clubs is down to there not being enough players to have one competitive team, let alone 3. Last year there were only 2 teams and they were the 2 worst in the First Division by a fair way.

Mervue seem to have made a fair stab at establishing themselves as a LoI club but only represent a tiny area of the city and haven't really tried to develop further. Whether this is sustainable is questionable.

Salthill Devon appear to have little to no interest in the LoI as a whole. Look at their website any weekend and you'll struggle to find any mention of the LoI side and no promotion of games. Last season they said they'd have a 1 year trial with their LoI wing rebranded as SD Galway and playing in Terryland. They put this proposal to their members a week after their opening game to the season.
During the season they didn't promote the games around the city and didn't seem to have any appetite at building a supporter base.
To me it seems Salthill are in the league because Mervue joined. Now they probably feel that by hanging in there they can get some sort of pay-off as the FAI will need them in agreement to facilitate a new club.

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Neither club "joined" the league. Both are in the league, because they "won" the A League when the reward was a FD place. They met the criteria to be in it on the pitch, and are in it by right. That's a simple fact, yet several years later, Galway still can't get their heads around it.

Mervue and Salthill may not get great gates, but neither do UCD in a 5-club city. The main problem is theoretical, that Galway think all their problems are over if their upstart rivals go back to where they were. That isn't going to happen, nor should it.

I'm not saying I don't want Galway in the league. I am saying if they want to be in it, that shouldn't be at the expense of anyone else.

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Originally Posted by gufcfan

Oh the irony.

The deal you have with Naughton is a disgrace.

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No1 I have no affiliation to Salthill despite who you think I am, and it's just another sad indictment of the persecution complex that GUST people seem to have and feel that the whole world is out to get them, instead of building a creditable bid for a LOI team you're more concerned at taking potshots and making up lies about what the other 2 clubs have done
No2 Whatever deal you're talking about is probably in your head like alot of things
No3 You still haven't responded to what I said earlier about what was in the proposed deal for the merger between Mervue/GUST and Salthill/GUST, proof of the debts that GUST have

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Originally Posted by mypost

Neither club "joined" the league. Both are in the league, because they "won" the A League when the reward was a FD place.

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But GUST don't have the opportunity to "win" their way in to the league. So the situation is not the same. Apples and Oranges.

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Originally Posted by mypost

Neither club "joined" the league. Both are in the league, because they "won" the A League when the reward was a FD place. They met the criteria to be in it on the pitch, and are in it by right. That's a simple fact, yet several years later, Galway still can't get their heads around it.

I'm not saying I don't want Galway in the league. I am saying if they want to be in it, that shouldn't be at the expense of anyone else.

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Both clubs "joined" the A Championship. Happy now?

The independent review commissioned by the FAI have said there should be one club, so at least one of the incumbents will have to leave.

The debate now is, what form should the club take.

The proposals were:

1) Salthill Devon
2) Mervue United
3) Galway United FC
4) A merger of 1) and 2)
5) A new club

It also indicated that either 3) or 5) were the most viable options.

GUST are hoping that they'll be accepted as 5) but there is a long way to go to prove to the FAI that this should be the case.

The report also recommended that the board of a new club should be made up of members of all parties so that everyone is represented.

These are all fair recommendations in my view.

There are far too many people self-absorbed to see that this whole process is for the betterment of LoI football in Galway. The club to benefit most from this whole mess are now champions. Is it such a fanciful dream that a United Galway club could eventually be too?

I'd like to hear Tribesman2's thoughts on this report and how he sees it best implemented.

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Originally Posted by WoodquayBoy

Oh for the love of . . . Okay, last year they insisted the GUST application was late, and no one would have a problem with that only for the fact both Derry City and Cork City FORAS Co-op were also late with their applications in previous seasons, but the rules were bent for them.
This time around, an aapplication for the information pack went ignored for a number of weeks, and now Delaney has said "thanks but no thanks". That's just 2 eexamples of how GUST has been treated

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we werent late. Don't know where you are getting that from, the FORAS application was in with plenty of time, we entered ours as a backup plan in case TNB wouldn't deal with us, we eventually managed to agree a deal to take CCIF ltd from him but too late and the FAI rejected the CCIFL license application and accepted the FORAS one.

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Originally Posted by gufcfan

GUST have far more experience than Cork or Derry had.

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I don't believe this is true either. FORAS were running the match day at Turners Cross for most of the season under TNB.

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Originally Posted by JC_GUFC

Both clubs "joined" the A Championship. Happy now?

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No. That was a non-league/reserve division, which has since been scrapped. The P/FD league is 19 clubs atm.

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The independent review commissioned by the FAI have said there should be one club.

There are far too many people self-absorbed to see that this whole process is for the betterment of LoI football in Galway. The club to benefit most from this whole mess are now champions. Is it such a fanciful dream that a United Galway club could eventually be too?

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It's not about the betterment of football in Galway, but what's best for the LOI in general. Whatever report is produced, the bare facts are as it stands, Mervue and Salthill are fully entitled to play LOI Senior Football in the P/FD. Galway are not.

There's no money in LOI football. What comes in, goes straight back out, so how viable clubs are is much of a muchness. But we can't afford to lose the current number of clubs we already have, just to accommodate someone else.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Can anybody explains to me why neither Salthill nor Mervue has gone bust yet? Surely the underage sides aren't funding this folly?

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Juvenile Membership for one of the clubs has gone from E50 per season to E150 per season. Only for members of my family are so heavily involved with the club, their sons would have moved to their local clubs instead of tracking into town 3 times a week.

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Originally Posted by El-Pietro

I don't believe this is true either. FORAS were running the match day at Turners Cross for most of the season under TNB.

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But GUST members have been running the matchday in Terryland for a number of years the did the stewarding ,produced and sold the programme,did the pa , and all the things needed to keep the club afloat,run golf classics race nights the lotto etc...... the only things the former directors did was drink tea at half time that the gust supporters also made

Good to see you got a post off at the first time of asking go MyPost.Nicely done ;)

Everyone in LOI realises that there is no money to be made from the leauge,its more an investment for the youngsters etc so what you have to ask is,is this been done in the Galway area?Is the FAI providing a good and fair service over there? Answer=NO or partly yes,its polarised.The FAI are doing no service to the area by having it that way because it puts lads and gershas off from playing and drives them to other more structered codes were they can all play together if theyr'e good enough
.If it was the GAA they would have it sorted in a heartbeat.
Get your junior clubs like Salthill and Mervue and all around but all feeding into one team,a Galway side with the blessings of all around,a real Galway United side.

Up to them of course to get together and get it working but it wouldnt be a job for the fair hearted to be taking on.

GUST are doing what they see is best for the memory of Galway United FC, and a history they will latch onto (like other clubs who will remain namless), though what Bullit has posited is excellent - and something he himself would see working in Louth (in GAA of course). Where clubs are unable to field independently in underage, they club together and get it done. There are still some who'll bitch and complain that it wasn't like this in the old days, the old days being the era they cling to in 1950-9 when they got a good new generation mixing with an older and unfortunate crop of quality players. Why couldn't all 3 clubs (MU, SDG and GUST) play Junior and field a Galway County team in the LOI? Okay, so it'd knock 1 club off the league roster and a few noses out of joint, but it would make sense, allow the sport to grow and develop and put the weight of resources behind one solid outfit.

But would I write the same if it was about my club and Drogheda and/or Monaghan, I don't know, I'd consider it and at least try to be objective. But if I were one of the clubs who had solid under age set ups and a local rival club, who'd gone bang and had more dodgy deals in their recent past than a UN security council member, would I want to be associated with them, regardless of the new and improved image being put forward by genuine supporters? Probably not, no. I'd rather my own little club muddle along, develop young players, provide a community service and grow.

I sincerely hope GUST can get a team accepted into the league, that they can run teams to the youngest age group and grow the club past their two current rivals to catch Harps and pluck at Sligo's tail, the LOI needs to grow sensibly, and maybe by putting an (almost) amateur team into the 1st Division Galway can do this. The club have to be given great thanks for showing how different codes can work together and put a genuinely beautiful part of Ireland on a different sporting stage, but this being LOI and Ireland, it'll be a long day before a sensible meeting of minds can happen.

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Originally Posted by El-Pietro

we werent late.

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My bad, sorry

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Originally Posted by SkStu

5 of the 7 rows has a club that is now defunct or permanently damaged... Pretty damning.

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Originally Posted by El-Pietro

I don't believe this is true either. FORAS were running the match day at Turners Cross for most of the season under TNB.

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The majority of people on the mc of gust would have been involved in running Gufc from 10 up 25 years so the idea that's been purported on here that we don't know how to run a loi club is totally false . In the last 2 years of Gufc loi tenure gust would have contributed over €300,000 towards the running of the club. Of all the stakeholders involved in the implementation group gust is the only one that has held open meetings for their members to let them know what is going on and taking on their opinions and decisions .

i do not think that stating that Galway has not got enough local playing talent to support 3 LOI teams is a valid point. Most clubs bring in playing talent from outside their geographical catchment area to make themselves more competitive, best example would be Sligo. There was two Galway players playing in the cup final a week ago, two (3) other Galway players play for this year's league champions, why was this ? and why did thay not play for Mervue and Salthill. I think the main reason is that the two LOI clubs could not offer them they same amount of money they can get elsewhere and also that the two clubs do not offer the same lads any prospect of playing at the highest level in Ireland in the future. The number of clubs in Galway does not matter, and I think both Mervue and Salthill should stay in the league for as long as they want or can. What we need in Galway is a club that can get enough public support and therefore money that they can offer the decent players from the west wages that will keep them at Terryland and also attract a few good outsiders in order to be competitive, i.e. have arealistic chance of making the Setanta Cup/europe and win one of the cups. The GUST project is the only hope for this, but sadly it does not look like that is going to happen as the FAI seem to be against it.

Wonder88,fair enough.but as an ex kinda LSL Grade player myself,i would pay my own way from game to game,leauge to leauge just to reach another/the next level,i got €50 as a xmas bonus one time from a team i was playing for and was so chuffed i went and got ****ed on it,me the pro,getting paid LOL
Money in lower leauges is not the attraction its the buzz for the next step up that keeps you going! (well for me anyway) It's always the step up and NOT MONEY.

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Originally Posted by Guitd

the only things the former directors did was drink tea at half time that the gust supporters also made

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The odd time they actually dared show their faces.

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Originally Posted by bullit

Get your junior clubs like Salthill and Mervue and all around but all feeding into one team,a Galway side with the blessings of all around,a real Galway United side.

Up to them of course to get together and get it working but it wouldnt be a job for the fair hearted to be taking on.

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This all makes complete sense, but this is the FAI we are talking about. Clubs re-elected Eamonn Naughton as chairman of the league by one vote. He has clearly been looking after his own interests and his banker votes from Mervue and Salthill ahead of the good of Galway football.

Tribesman2 and his buddies can go on about "there fair and square" all he likes but that isn't even true. They were given an A Championship place fair enough, the requirements were very loose. They were then given a First Division licence when they shouldn't have been. Clubs around the country who were as well equipped for LOI football as they were, more so even, but they were told to take a run and jump.

GUST have the manpower, decades of LOI experience, the support of Galway United fans, the business community and the fanbase who know who greeted them at the gate of Terryland every second Friday.

It's ok for Mervue and Salthill to apply for 2013 licences while they are taking part in "the process", but it would not be proper for GUST to be allowed do so.

F*** off.

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Originally Posted by gufcfan

It's ok for Mervue and Salthill to apply for 2013 licences while they are taking part in "the process", but it would not be proper for GUST to be allowed do so.

F*** off.

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Originally Posted by mypost

It's not about the betterment of football in Galway, but what's best for the LOI in general. Whatever report is produced, the bare facts are as it stands, Mervue and Salthill are fully entitled to play LOI Senior Football in the P/FD. Galway are not.

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Absolutely. Mervue and Salthill are entitled to play in the LOI at the moment, and most people do not dispute this. What most football people in Galway have a problem with at the moment is the fact that the other 42 clubs in the Galway and District League are being denied representation. They do not feel Mervue or Salthill represent them and would feel represented by a team run by the Galway United Supporters Trust as they have been working hard since the departure of Leeson and his cronies to rebuild relationships and reach out to all the clubs in the area.

In a year where there is an open call for expressions of interest from new and existing entities to join the First Division why can an expression of interest from GUST be refused? Their presence in the league is not going to impact on the crowds of any other team. They have a sufficient support base (more than most FD clubs), the use of a top quality ground, owned by the Galway F.A., they have finally acquired a part-share in a training ground (for the first time in Galway United history).

For Delaney and co. to refuse to issue an application pack to such an enthusiastic, experienced and dedicated group of genuine football people is outrageous. The excuse, as gufcfan refers to is that GUST are part of the Ned O'Connor process and so, to admit them now would not be appropriate. This is a hollow argument when two of the four members of the process are being allowed to reapply for licences. If this was a fair and equal process all would be denied and the process would be moved at a far more rapid pace ensuring the new entity would be in place on time for 2013. If, as Delaney claims, this is not possible for 2013 why deny those of us who do not live in Mervue or Salthill a team for a second year running? If this isn't sorted I'll be off to the Sportsground with everyone else. I'm a lifelong fan of football, my father was involved in the game for decades, but to hell with the FAI if this is how they will treat us !

do you need an information pack to apply? Apply anyway....maybe get a license, force Delaney's hand.

http://thescore.thejournal.ie/cobh-r...urce=shortlink

Would love to see this.

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Originally Posted by fieldofmarkets

do you need an information pack to apply? Apply anyway....maybe get a license, force Delaney's hand.

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Naughton will not allow GUST apply at any cost. He has election promises to keep to the other two. He is on the NLEC which gives out the packs anyway.

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Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy

http://thescore.thejournal.ie/cobh-r...urce=shortlink

Would love to see this.

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Those debts though. How much income can Cobh expect from League of Ireland to pay it off without being totally crippled financially?

€24k doesn't seem like an impossible amount to manage if there's any bit of goodwill from the creditors at all. The league could do with Cobh coming back.

Cobh owe players money, players who have said they are not willing to budge any further. Greg and Dav have agreed payment schedules with the club in the past and the club have fallen through.

They may have changed their minds on this since last year but if not and if Cobh can't come up with the money they owe players then they won't get a license.

I'd imagine that's why the PFAI are involved. Trying to come to an agreement and to see that Cobh stick to it. Players have a better chance of getting their money if they come back into the league.

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Originally Posted by mypost

I'm not saying I don't want Galway in the league. I am saying if they want to be in it, that shouldn't be at the expense of anyone else.

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What he said. I don't really buy the whole line about their not being enough players in the player pool either. It looks true at first glance but if the GUST machine is really so much bigger than the other two clubs they're going to have their pick of the players anyway which would probably only serve the hasten the demise of Mervue/Salthill that so many people in Galway seem desperate for. Given the crowds that the existing clubs draw (so well documented by the GUST people on here) there's little worry that GUST will be outbid for players, common sense would suggest that GUST would effectively take what they wanted and strangle the other two.

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Originally Posted by KevBGUFC

Absolutely. Mervue and Salthill are entitled to play in the LOI at the moment, and most people do not dispute this. What most football people in Galway have a problem with at the moment is the fact that the other 42 clubs in the Galway and District League are being denied representation. They do not feel Mervue or Salthill represent them and would feel represented by a team run by the Galway United Supporters Trust as they have been working hard since the departure of Leeson and his cronies to rebuild relationships and reach out to all the clubs in the area.

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Denied representation where? I don't think that the junior clubs in any part of the country feel particularly 'represented' by the senior club in the city (and nor should they be). In most cases the senior club is just an inconvenience who will come along and harvest your best players when you do put a good side together. I think all senior clubs would like to get on better with the local juniors but the current love-in between GUST and the GDL will be seriously strained once GUST start looking for players to field a senior team again.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Those debts though. How much income can Cobh expect from League of Ireland to pay it off without being totally crippled financially?

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How much income can they expect from outside the league though?

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Originally Posted by gufct

The majority of people on the mc of gust would have been involved in running Gufc from 10 up 25 years so the idea that's been purported on here that we don't know how to run a loi club is totally false.

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Ah come here now, you can't have it both ways. You can't claim to have carried the club for 10-25 years but that you had nothing to do with the meltdown that led to the last financial meltdown. Which is it? Look, GUST should obviously be allowed to apply for a First Division license and given the scarcity of teams currently in the league they should be allowed in. At that point they (and Mervue and SD) should be allowed to have natural selection take it's course. Mervue (in particular) and Salthill are not the problem though and it's getting a bit jaded that they're constantly being alluded to as all that stood between GUFC and regular visits to the Champions League group stages (yes, I'm being a little facetious, there's no need to point that out).

I highly doubt GUST would have their pick of players like they suggest they might. They talk of Stephen O Donnell, Iarlaith Davoren, Alan Keane et al coming back to play for a Galway club but it's never going to happen. They're going to be picking from Mervue/Salthill teams if they ever get a licence. That's the reality. Players will go where the money is and that will never be in a Galway club. And even some of these players who were with GUFC under GUST's stewardship found it difficult to get their wages owed and sometimes went weeks unpaid so it would be difficult to see them rushing back.

GUST said they had a major sponsor in place to back their LOI team for last season if they got in. This same sponsor jumped on board with both Mervue and Salthill and afaik and is the main sponsor of both clubs.

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Originally Posted by Tribesman2

I highly doubt GUST would have their pick of players like they suggest they might. They talk of Stephen O Donnell, Iarlaith Davoren, Alan Keane et al coming back to play for a Galway club but it's never going to happen. e main sponsor of both clubs.

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Where have GUST stated this? They have said they want to build a club so that players like these don't have to up-sticks to Sligo, Dublin etc. to play LoI. I don't think anyone is foolish enough to think that the lads mentioned above would run back to Galway in the morning if GUST got in.

GUST said they had a major sponsor in place to back their LOI team for last season if they got in. This same sponsor jumped on board with both Mervue and Salthill and afaik and is the main sponsor of both clubs.[/QUOTE]


We had a main sponsor on board, a letter from this sponsor was forwarded to the FAI as part of a presentation to have our licence application considered. The sponsor was subsequently persuaded by the FAI to support SD Galway.

The players that you named are actually hugely supportive of GUST and would love to return at some stage to in the the future to play for Galway United. Their families would also be well known to GUST and would be behind the return of a united Galway team - as late as last Saturday I spoke to a brother of one of the above.

This is the second time that you have insinuated that named players have not been paid wages - again a fabrication. It would be similar to me posting "Raffael Cretaro hates Sligo Rovers, he will be out of there like a shot" or some or unsubstantiated, bitter rubbish.

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Originally Posted by Patrick Dunne

This is the second time that you have insinuated that named players have not been paid wages - again a fabrication. It would be similar to me posting "Raffael Cretaro hates Sligo Rovers, he will be out of there like a shot" or some or unsubstantiated, bitter rubbish.

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No he actually said they went weeks without being paid, not that they still haven't been paid. Isn't it true that players went weeks at the time without being paid?

There were delays in payment of wages at various times at Galway United between 2010 - 2011 - this would have been wided featured in the media and on various fora.

The "holier than thou" attitude adopted by Tribesman2 is bizarre, considering that his club only managed to pay players for the first three weeks of the 2012 season.

The original point, that a lot of players from Galway currently forced to play outside the county, would return if there was a strong Galway club in the League of Ireland, still stands.

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Originally Posted by Patrick Dunne

GUST said they had a major sponsor in place to back their LOI team for last season if they got in. This same sponsor jumped on board with both Mervue and Salthill and afaik and is the main sponsor of both clubs.



The players that you named are actually hugely supportive of GUST and would love to return at some stage to in the the future to play for Galway United. Their families would also be well known to GUST and would be behind the return of a united Galway team - as late as last Saturday I spoke to a brother of one of the above.

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And this isn't fabrication? How do you know what they want? You don't have a clue.

I speak to the missus all the time about Longford Town, doesn't mean she gives a ****.

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Originally Posted by Patrick Dunne

The players that you named are actually hugely supportive of GUST and would love to return at some stage to in the the future to play for Galway United. Their families would also be well known to GUST and would be behind the return of a united Galway team - as late as last Saturday I spoke to a brother of one of the above.

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Originally Posted by Patrick Dunne

The original point, that a lot of players from Galway currently forced to play outside the county, would return if there was a strong Galway club in the League of Ireland, still stands.

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You realise how ridiculous this sounds don't you?

"If we're a strong club the local lads will come back." Well, d'uh! if you're that strong you'll have the pick of the league! Each as likely as the other.

As for the "I was talking to his brother" line...

People, i think anyone would have to find it a tad strange that GUST are being shunned by the FAI when its clear as day they need them to make up numbers. For an onlooker it would definitely appear that there is something fishy going on here. How long can the FAI block them is the question?

And Limerick are the last club that should be sticking the knife in i would have thought, given all that went on between them and the FAI before the L37 episode. The club were shunned and ye are lucky to be where ye are right now, just my opinion. But thats a standard rule of thumb in this league; wait long enough and your own club will be in some sort of turmoil at some stage. No one in this league can afford to have glass houses or to throw stones.