REPLY FROM GALWAY UNITED FC
I refer to a letter from Mr John Cahill, Ballybane, which was given prominence by your newspaper and which contains several serious allegations and inaccuracies about Galway United.
Let me state at the outset that those of us running Galway United, whether as volunteers or otherwise, are not above scrutiny or criticism.
I was one of the ‘luminaries’, as Mr Cahill condescendingly refers, who witnessed at first-hand his effort to receive special treatment in the purchase of tickets for the Sunderland game. Like all of the people involved in the club, I make every effort to make myself available to deal with issues raised by supporters.
It is notable that in Mr Cahill’s quite detailed account of events at the UCD game he forgets to mention how one member of the club’s Management Committee, in sympathy with his plight, took it upon himself to purchase three Galway United scarves and present them to Mr Cahill’s children.
But it is quite clear Mr Cahill’s correspondence is not about highlighting positives about Galway United but quite clearly an effort to portray the club in as poor a fashion as possible. Remarkable behaviour, you might suggest, for a person who clearly views himself as a ‘supporter’.
Mr Cahill’s misleading and mischievous allegation of greed by Galway United is, ironically, defeated by himself in his opening paragraphs.
In those, he tells us how he brings his three children to every home match FREE OF CHARGE. Put another way, instead of paying €24 each time to have his children admitted, they can walk through the gate because the club has adopted, and wishes to maintain, a policy of allowing all children to attend games without having to pay a cent.
As the father of two children myself, I have not witnessed such benevolence when I bring my children to the cinema, bowling, concerts or other sporting events.
The exception to this ‘children free’ policy is the game against Sunderland, which is already over subscribed. The club, realising that demand would exceed supply, adopted a detailed ticket distribution policy which ensured that children’s tickets at €20 each went first to our season ticket holders and these were quickly snapped up.
The system for ticket pricing and distribution was drawn up the club’s Management Committee and adopted by its Board and both groups have supporters’ representatives.
The ticket allocation system adopted by the club has ensured that 3,000 of the 5,000 people who will attend the Sunderland game will do so on concession tickets. Of the remainder, Sunderland have sold their allocation of 1,200 tickets.
A further 3,000 children will attend, free of charge, a Sunderland training event on the eve of the game, thanks to an arrangement with the Galway and District League.
The club made it quite clear that the only tickets for the Sunderland match available at the UCD game were €40 each and that these were only available to people who paid into the ground.
Children were admitted free to that match but if they wished to purchase a Sunderland ticket then they too had to pay into the game.
Logistically, there is no other way we could have handled the sale of the Sunderland tickets to the public at that time.
There is a huge cost involved in staging this match but one which, in making the decision to go ahead with the game some months ago, we felt was worthwhile as this is an opportunity not just to witness a side like Sunderland, but more an opportunity for us to showcase all that is good about Galway soccer.
The unprecedented demand for tickets, coupled with the level of plaudits we have received from fans and from people who are new to Galway United, clearly shows it was a correct decision.
This season it will cost about €1.2 million to run Galway United. Other than a grant of €15,000 from the FAI towards a club promotions officer, every cent of that €1.2 million will have to raised by the people running GalwayUnited.
Think about it for a moment, that is €25,000 required every week to ensure that Galway United continues to participate in the national soccer league.
The clubs in the top half of the Premier Division of the league are operating from budgets of about double Galway United’s. That is the reality of professional sport.
Ten of us are underpinning the club’s finances with personal guarantees for the next three years of €30,000 each. A detailed financial budget is in place to source and collect the €1.2 million required to run the club each season.
It is tough going but, I am glad to say, one that is in hand and a credit to all involved.
We are but the latest guardians of the club, all of us operating on a voluntary basis. Down through the past 30 years there have been similar people who gave generously of their time and money to ensure League of Ireland football survived in Galway and, in turn, we will pass on the club to a new set of guardians.
We have been encouraged by the level of support from fans and from the corporate sector. Thousands of hours are spent by up to 100 volunteers collecting the €1.2 million required through events such as golf outings, dog nights, banquets, lotto sales, casino nights and so on.
Each volunteer in the club, whether it is a Board member who has already pledged €30,000, or a steward who spends most of a match in the car park or at the turnstile and rarely gets to see any of the action on the pitch, purchases a season ticket. It is the dedication and commitment of these wonderful people that has seen Galway United return to the top flight of Irish football and it will be these people, and not the ones taking cheap shots, that will ensure the future of the club.
As we develop, we will continue to grow our staff levels. At the moment, the club employs over 30 full-time people, the majority involved on the playing and coaching side of the business.
The club is blessed with a small but hugely dedicated staff who run the administrative side of Galway United. Your letter writer is also wide of the mark in his assertions about his dealings with a member of staff in this regard, gravely insensitively as it turns out.
Mr Cahill says that the failure of a Galway United official to meet him on Monday because he was in England was a ‘fob-off’. The reality, quite regretfully I’m afraid, is rather different.
The reason our official was unable to meet Mr Cahill was that he was in London at his father’s bedside when he died. Indeed, I was with our official prior to the UCD match when he received a call informing him that his father’s condition had deteriorated alarmingly. In the circumstances, I felt my colleague displayed remarkable constraint a few minutes later in dealing with Mr Cahill’s less than restrained effort to receive special treatment.
Even a cursory effort by your newspaper to check the authenticity of Mr Cahill’s other serious allegations would have alerted you to the grossly insensitive nature of this part of his claim.
Mr Cahill’s unhelpful and inaccurate assertion about the club’s off-field activity does not stand up.
Following the Genesis Report into Irish soccer, the FAI appointed an Independent Assessment Group to carry out an intensive examination of each of the 22 League of Ireland clubs. This was the most in-depth examination of clubs ever undertaken in this country and scrutinised every aspect of each club, on and off the field during a lengthy process that continued for many months.
At the end of this process, it was found that Galway United was the best run club in the country, which was the primary reason we were invited to compete in the new Premier Division this season.
Such a designation of the club was testimony to the magnificent work carried out by so many people, many of whom operate in the background with minimal acknowledgement.
There are many people who seek to shape and influence Galway United going forward. Most do it by buying season tickets, rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in to the work of one of our many committees, others do it by securing sponsorship and so on.
Others, a tiny minority, try to shape the image of the club by writing letters of complaint to local newspapers.
I, for one, am in no doubt who the real supporters of Galway United are.
Yours sincerely,
John Fallon,
Chairman,
Galway United FC.
Originally Posted by Patrick Dunne
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