Utd fans meet to decide fate
Date Published: {J}
Keith Kelly
Members of the Galway United Supporters Trust are to meet in the Galway Rovers hall in the Claddagh tonight to vote on whether or not to join up with either Mervue United or Salthill Devon for the 2012 season.
Representatives of GUST have held formal talks with both clubs about forming an alliance for the season ahead, and the official proposals from both clubs will be put to Galway United fans at tonight’s meeting, which gets underway at 8pm.
Although there has still been no official announcement from the FAI that it is rejecting the GUST’s application for a league licence for the coming season, it is widely accepted that hopes to have a GUST FC team playing in the Airtricity League First Division in 2012 will not come to fruition.
Instead the FAI is believed to have urged both Mervue and Devon to open discussions with GUST with the view to forming an alliance for the season ahead. Devon and GUST met in the Ardilaun Hotel last Tuesday, and a meeting between the fans’ group and Mervue is believed to have taken place over the weekend.
GUST members and Galway United fans associated with the fans’ group will effectively be voting on three proposals this evening - to align themselves with Mervue United; to form an alliance with Salthill Devon; or to reject both proposals, take a year out of the League of Ireland and look to build links with the Galway & District League during the year with a view to applying for a licence for the 2013 season.
If the proposals from both Mervue and Devon are rejected, however, it is expected both clubs will look to capitalise on the uncertainty surrounding a fans’ team and bid to themselves become a Galway representative side.
Salthill Devon are believed to have a solid plan drawn up in this regard – Sentinel Sport understands that, irrespective of whether or not GUST accept its ‘alliance’ proposal, the club plans to rebrand its Airtricity League First Division team as SD Galway FC for the 2012 season, and play out of Terryland Park, which is part of its proposal to the GUST.
It will also wear a maroon jersey as its home strip – the club is believed to be in talks with long-time kit supplier Umbro over the design of a new jersey – and also has plans to set up a new supporters’ club.
For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.