Galway United fans

Enjoyed it last night, love the bar in the old dressing rooms.

I don't think it was a deliberate back pass, only would have been a free anyway not a peno.

Would have liked to see Galway stay up

Bo Jackson wrote: A huge stumbling block for Galway is Eamonn Deacy Park ironically enough as they don't own it. The Galway FA are stifling a lot of progress the club could be making

Bo what the craic with the GFA I would like to ask the question on the GUFC forum but I have had posts deleted .

Went to my first ever LOI game couple weeks back vs st. pats. Just got back from a year in Germany where I overdosed on football at all levels and said I'd make an effort from now on to support local football when I got back. Honestly I quite liked Eamonn Deacy Park, no stadium I've ever been at has you so close to the pitch so was pretty unique least from my experience. 

http://ubm3.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/2ya5b2vsk7f.html

whitesideOnside wrote: Mighty trip. Couldn't be with a better bunch and we were blessed that it was dry too. Very interesting to see changing rooms and facilities in the different grounds and the different playing surfaces. Some clubs treated us brilliantly on arrival even though we kept them up late on a Saturday night. Marvelous experience. As Guftc says you can still donate to any of our fundraising pages. http://gufc-coop.com/campaigns/loi-dash-morgan-geraghty/

Edited by GoneToShowgies - 21 Nov 2017 at 1:56pm

I have alluded to the efforts of Galway United being stifled by the Galway FA previously but now I can give an example of the stuff at hand. Some of this has been copied from the GUFC forum if it looks familiar to any posters/lurkers there.


Last Friday, the Galway FA launched the Galway Football Academy, a new Academy being run by the GFA in conjunction with the FAI as an approved partner in the Player Development Plan.

From their press release
"The Academy will cover the League Centres for all ages from 11 to 16 boys and girls, these league centres will be enlarged to cover double the previous size and cater for football at all levels under the direct supervision of FAI approved staff. All levels of the representative county squads will also be playing in the Academy and representing Galway and this will be the recognised pathway to the Emerging Talent Program which will also become part of this academy remit in the near future. Coaches have been appointed to each age group and these will be overseen by three Galway United Legends of the game Kevin Cassidy, Stephen Lally, & Peter Carpenter. These Legends who have enhanced coaching certifications will make sure that the academy players will all be coached in the same and FAI approved way to give stability and better chances of success and enjoyment. These GUFC legends have brought this plan to life with planning and worked closely worked alongside the FAI Emerging Talent national co-ordinator and the coaching body."



This has come after Galway United set up their own Junior Academy for the U15/U17/U19 National leagues. Galway United's youth players will be playing against the elite players in Ireland in these age brackets. The emergence of another academy raises several questions.

Will they be competing for the same players?
Will the GFA Academy players just be training among themselves?
Do players have to pay to take part?


There's a suggestion that this pathway allows Junior clubs in Galway to keep their players and sell them to England themselves if they are good enough rather than lose them to United. Some Junior clubs in Galway have a better history of producing talent before they can even play for Galway United.



The start of this new academy made little sense the more I thought about it. This morning I came across an email from Ger Gibbons, the (now former) chairman of the Galway Football Association. He has resigned because he has seen first hand the efforts being made to prevent Galway United from progressing at any level as a League of Ireland club.


The catering has long been an issue amongst United fans. It's not just the standard or the customer service that is the issue from the providers but the way its been handled by the GFA. The contract for catering at Eamonn Deacy Park has been swept under the rug rather than offered on a public forum. In Gibbons email however, when the catering contract came up for renewal this year Galway United offered more money then the other bidder but the lower bid got the contract.

No explanation for this has been given. Efforts made by GUFC volunteers serving Pizza at half-time or even tea were met with swift resistance from the GFA.


The new bar at Eamonn Deacy Park has been a welcome addition in the opinion of everyone who has experienced it. Apparently there was serious opposition to it when Galway United originally enquired about it. I'm not sure why. However, Gibbons signed a contract with Galway United for the bar on behalf of the committee for a total of one year at a reduced fee so that the club could recoup some of the 10000 euro they spent renovating the old dressing rooms. No money was spent by the GFA on this initiative. Anyone who visited Galway this season always mentioned the bar as a great feature so it would make sense to keep it there for the future. Before the fee for 2018 was up for discussion at around the end of this year, an email was sent to Galway United telling them to remove all their stuff from the bar area.

Why? According to Gibbons "The decision to restore the dressing rooms was seemingly taken by some members of the football committee and other people who are not on the Galway FA and without consultation with the full committee of the Galway FA so that this new academy could use them. Why would we need this when we have the finest dressing rooms in the League of Ireland."

An excellent point. The new stand at Eamonn Deacy Park was renovated in 2007 and has excellent facilities. There is no need for the dressing rooms old clubhouse to be used. Work started on the removal of the bar and Gibbons doesn't know who gave that instruction to remove it.


According to the Galway FA on their Facebook page, they claimed Galway United did not make contact with them regarding co-operation in relation to an academy. This was immediately contradicted by the SLO of Galway United who said communication was made between the two. This was expanded upon further by Gibbons, who said Galway United "did make contact with a member of the Galway FA about running this jointly but was told that he would discuss with the committee and get back to him. When he did get back to Galway United he said the committee were not interested"

This is where it gets ludicrous. Gibbons states that "I am not sure what committee did discuss this but it was not the full committee. Also the academy was seemingly launched last weekend and the first I knew of it was when I saw the picture on Facebook of all the coaches in EDP not sure who knew about the launch but I as chairman definitely didn't"


Imagine finding out about a large scale development plan for football for an association your chairman of on social media. It's f**king pathetic.

had to go

68Y 10N 1Spoilt  was a reported outcome for the Special GM allowing the board to negotiate with new investors.