But those two don't fulfill the criteria. Their grounds fall far short of what's required. If this is true it's a disgraceful decision. Presumably it'll be appealed.
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But those two don't fulfill the criteria. Their grounds fall far short of what's required. If this is true it's a disgraceful decision. Presumably it'll be appealed.
My commisserations to the Galway fans if this indeed proves to be true - would be incredibly disappointing to see football in the city disappear, when Mervue and Salthill will never grow much bigger than they are at present.
The appeal process may happen alright, the trust are very quiet at the moment so my guess is that they are weighing up there options.
Mervue are already living well beyond there means from what club members are telling me.
Whilst playing staff are leaving salthill like there is no tomorrow. The last round of junior fixtures before the winter break, Salthill Devon had to field 3 goalkeepers outfield just so they could have 11 players available.
Everything is pure speculation right now, although quite ominous... but I wouldn't hold out much hope for a successful appeal to be honest, since the licensing committee includes Delaney and the one of the other fools responsible for Mervue and Devon being begged to join the LOI. If the reason for the license being denied is outside of the licensing requirements, could GUST even appeal?Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
Talks to continue over the weekend, sounds negative so far, but the fight goes on.
Disappointing if true, the reason there are 3 clubs in Galway is because the FAI let the other 2 in first day with shag all to offer in terms of stadia or support.
Can't exactly see the people of Galway rallying around 2 junior clubs.
If GUSTFC are denied a license, could the original GUFC still be saved and another license applied for next year? The entity itself is still afloat?
All Galways complaints about 3 teams from Galway in the league and now they are upset that the FAI agree with them? If that is why they have not been given a licence.
All this talk about Mervue and Salthill only being in becuase they were invited is by the FAI is bull they earned the right to be in the 1st division through the A Championship.
Would have been ridiculous if they were told they couldnt join the league just because Galway were there.
Commiserations to all Galway fans though hate to see people left with no club to support.
A statement by the FAI on yesterday's meeting with Galway United Supporters Trust has been delayed for the next 48hrs as GUST decide their next plan of action.
From the Galway Sports News FB page
Sad to hear if true. While Mervue and Salthill deserve to be in the league, they aren't the type of clubs that people in Galway will support in great numbers. I know Galway's crowds were down in recent seasons, but as a Club the potential to grow & have a fanbase would be far greater. Galway does need a big club in the City.
Did Galway do ticket offers for the students of NUIG and GMIT?
Students always get reduced rates in Terryland. With Summer football most students from outside Galway are not around for most of the season. A lot of our supporters from outside the city started to follow United whilst in college. I'm gone back to NUIG and United shirts and gear are fairly popular.
Very angry about the news today if it is true, spent most of my life following my club around the country, so many memories, it hurts to have it taken away. I will never support Salthill or Mervue no matter where they play or what they change their name to. FAI have made a serious mistake. LOI in Galway is dead.
Actually, unbelievable as it sounds, our gates were ever so slightly up last season in when compared to the previous season, all thanks to the GUST efforts, well at least it wasn't for the football being played !!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
it had nothing to do with the 100 euro season tickets no?Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
Price of tickets is only one factor in increasing crowds. Do you remember when TNB let everyone in for free for a Drogheda match? We didn't exactly pack them in that night.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
they sold 600 season tickets - thats different to saying one game is freeQuote:
Originally Posted by sullanefc
Slightly down but not much still good considering the season in it. Also there was 4 games where away fans would be around the 300 mark. (just saying)Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
http://foot.ie/threads/148138-2011-a...=1#post1546985
If Galway don't get a licence that shouldn't mean the end. It will give them a year to get youth structures in place and work on building up support in the community again they can come back with a stronger bid next year. It was well known that the chances of GUST getting a licence were extremely slim so I'm sure there is a back up plan to contuine to club in some form if the rumours are true.
Have to say spud your talking from the wrong end, soccer and loi in particular can never be parochial but main points
1 rdo and clubs are working very hard in schools and groups and this will take years to bear fruit and
2 if clubs try to compete with local underage and junior clubs for the best players they will alienate potential support
Another classic example of the FAI shifting the goalposts to suit themselves. Perfectly alright for Cork and Derry to do it, but not for us. They've killed off a club with a hardcore support that Salthill and Mervue combined can only dream of.
I'm still clinging to the possibility of some light at the end of the tunnel. The MC are working extremely hard, hopefully their efforts won't be in vain
I've always been in favour of the possibility of dual registration for players, and that if a player is signed from a junior club, the LOI club pays a set appearance fee, of say €30 a game, to the junior club. €1000 a season can mean a lot to a junior club, and would definitely soften the blow of losing players to the LOI. The members of junior football clubs, and there are thousands of them, should be a core demographic for the LOI to target as supporters, and anything that reduces animosity should be a good thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by passerrby
I'm not talking about making the break from junior to senior ,that's not a bad idea by the way but I'm referring to loi clubs hovering up the best under 12, 13 14 in an area which causes resentment in the underage game and stifles potential support
Our attendance figure for the season just gone is wrong on that thread. It was higher than the season before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean South
All the figures on that are what were posted as official on the thread, presumably from the PA announcement during the game.
Mervue had to put in turnstiles to take money, whereas in Drom, three or four times last season you got in for free because they didn't have any stewards to collect money on the way in to the ground, not to mention the fact that the "fence" around the pitch in Drom is to mark the division between the pitches rather than keep anybody out.Quote:
Originally Posted by compo
My point was that just because something is cheap, doesn't mean that a lot more people will buy it. There is a limited interest in LOI in this country. Plus, whether they sold a lot of season tickets or not, to get people in the gate to watch their team play abysmally and get hammered every week is an achievement.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
Some people will always find fault no matter what. GUST offered this initiative and saw it as an incentive to get bums on seats. It worked. The season ticket would have lost value/paid for itself after 9/10 games, but people still turned up and thats encouraging.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
What GUST have done is created a hell of a lot of goodwill towards the club again, and have made some serious inroads in building the bridges that were so badly damaged in the previous regime.
If Mervue and Salthill believe that there will be an upturn in attendances as a result of our demise, then they're greatly mistaken.
They're not stupid, just jealous and spiteful. It may be hard for people outside of Galway to see anything other than infighting within the city, but you can take it as fact that GUST have never done anything to harm either club, or any club for that matter. Certain people within those clubs are working furiously behind the scenes, attempting to influence the decision of the licensing committee in their favour and against the well-being of football in the city and county of Galway.Quote:
Originally Posted by gufc2000
Far more could be said about that, but I'll keep my mouth shut about it until there is official word from one party or the other.
I've a good friend who played at a low enough level in Galway junior football and even he was telling me Mervue in particular actually hate(d) Galway United and there was no prospect of cooperation. Sad state of affairs.
In relation to this, the prospect of cooperation comes up every so often here on foot.ie, on the United forum or even in the local media in Galway. People aren't to know, especially those not from Galway, but United supporters come across as lunatics when we rubbish the idea. It simply isn't feasible. It really is genuine hatred. There's nothing wrong with a healthy rivalry, even though the clubs are not in competition with each other, whatever they may think themselves, but the energy they put into this lunacy just beggars belief.Quote:
Originally Posted by Longfordian
Edit: What I said about rivalry sounds like a dig, but what I mean is that the football supporters of Galway City and County do not and will not ever indentify with teams they associate with housing estates. A friend with a passing interest in Irish football was shocked when I told him that Mervue were allowed compete in the LOI using Fahy's Field as a "stadium". The gist of what he said to me was that, he knows a lot of people knock the LOI and that it's a big joke to some, but can you really blame them when teams are playing on a field with a fence around it, without even a wall to stand against for cover.
Honest question here: If there is so much rivalry and hatred between the Galway sides then how come that we dont see it here or on other football forums ??? I have never seen a MervueU Or SalthillDevon fan on this forum.
Without being dismissive as far as I can tell they don't actually have active fanbases that would have any interest in whipping up tensions online. It happens all over the country, junior clubs develop a pretty much one sided rivalry with the local senior club.
They just have very few fans. Their published attendance figures are inflated by a huge percentage. Mervue natives will vouch for that.Quote:
Originally Posted by bullit
A number of people that I would know in Mervue United for example that are fans wouldn't be posting on internet forums and have more sense than us probably. They seem to be content with an online presence consisting of a club website and a P.R.O. that writes for extratime who at times isn't far off adding a zero onto the end of their actual attendance figures. There's a few people here that would go to see Mervue, but they are Galway United fans first and foremost and probably go up there for something to do when United are away to be honest. They would be a significant % of their actual attendances.
Thats because is there no real supporter groups of these clubs, just players past and present and family members. Im a mervue resident myself and I wouldn't go and watch them because of the disgraceful behaviour of one or two of their members towards all levels of football across the entire Galway DL never mind Galway United.Quote:
Originally Posted by bullit
People would never believe these things (and I didn't myself at first) until you experience them first hand.
The attendance figures are laughable at best. Each one would have to be halved to give a more accurate figure.Quote:
Originally Posted by gufcfan
Im not having a go at them as they earned there place in the league through the structure that was put in place at the time and they are a good footballing side with a good history at underage and junior levels, but when it comes to off the field antics it has to be said that the goings on are an absolute disgrace. GUST did offer the 2 clubs an olive branch to come to some arrangement which would strengthen Galway football in the forseeable future, but they were told where they could stick it. Thankfully there are other excellent football clubs across the district league (at least 90% of them) who are looking into forming agreements with GUST to give their players and clubs a new stepping stone when it comes to player, structural and financial development. These talks will continue to progress with Corrib rangers the first to link up.
It would be interesting to see what would happen to Mervue or Salthill's attendances if they were ever to reach the Premier Division (unlikely as it is).
They would treble due to away fans. I'm not joking when I say their attendance figures are massively overstated.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
I wouldn't be exactly sure Spudulika so I wont comment, but it involved a lot of what the FAI were requesting for the clubs to consider when John Delaney was last in town. A GUST member would be able to say better than myself. A merger wasn't far off the books a good few years ago when Salthill Devon were actually running Galway United when the old board left (Gerry Grey CEO, Eamonn Naughton and one or two others now working up in abbotstown). There was a lot of talk back then that GUFC were changing there name to Galway Devon (actual statement from a salthill devon board member) but that board had a lot of internal bickering going on and the 2 clubs went there own way with board members leaving salthill to stay with united, this all occured during the time that the supporters abandoned being GUISA (Galway United Independent Supporters Association) and formed GUST in its place.
Thanks a million for that Terry and this illuminates a little of the bitterness that exists. It would be great to see co-operation between clubs though in a limited market for players and resources there is always going to be a battle. I hope GUST get a club into the league and begin building from the ground up. There is a good season in prospect for local derbies that will prove competitive with decent crowds, plus Athlone and Longford are close enough to have a 5 team battle royale. Hope springs eternal!Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
exactly Spudulika, If GUSTFC were to get a licence, mervue and salthill would get gates of what GUFC were getting last season seeing as the GUFC supporters wouldn't even have to travel outside of the city or county. With as you said, athlone and longford only up the road, and not forgetting Limerick also, there is a great opporunity of an increase in gates across many clubs and not just the galway team
I forgot Limerick (for no reason other than having made a couple of trips from Limerick to Galway 4-5 years ago I'd have thought them further away). Gates for the 2 other sides in Galway would be terrific with GUST in play, and I am certain with some joined up thinking there would be a real sponsorship boost. Though this is where football in Ireland traditionally falls down. A Sligo friend told me that Galway usually get a decent away group with them, surely the FAI will take this into account.
It's motorway the whole way there pretty much, so it's quite a handy drive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudulika
Sligo doesn't take all that long to get to, going up the N17. A lot of people who wouldn't tend to go to away matches make and effort to go to the derby match. Funnily enough, I was in the north for a couple of the pre-season games last year, but I haven't been to a game in Sligo for years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudulika
Thanks gufcfan, that's a handy couple of matches for fans (Sligo and Limerick), it'd be great (in a way) if there was one big league put in place with 20 clubs playing 38 matches - you'd have some decent turnouts for the Sligo-Athlone-Longford-Salthill-Mervue-GUST-Limerick set of matches. Can never see it happening though, but nice to suppose it.
What's the rivalry like with Athlone and Longford?