Fans forum hopes to unite varied interests

"Irish Fans United", the new alliance which aims to act as an umbrella group for Irish football supporters, unveiled itself to the media yesterday at a Dublin hotel, two days after its inaugural meeting. Mary Halligan reports.

Chairman Michael Nugent, a member of Fine Gael, has been vocal in his opposition to the Football Association of Ireland's (FAI) deal with Sky Sports and decided to set up the group after being contacted by others equally opposed to the deal.

For now the group's aim is to overturn the FAI's contract with Sky Sports, but, long-term, it aspires to develop "a structured entity that promotes Irish football and represents, and is accountable to, all Irish fans".

"Our real aim is to get as many fans involved as possible so that what evolves is actually representative of every view in Irish football," said Nugent. "The difficulty will be in reconciling what I believe are the three broad groups: (1) people who are just into football, any football; (2) people who just watch the national team, the whole "Ole, Ole" thing; (3) people who just watch the National League.

"We are aware that many National League supporters are in favour of the Sky deal, but, to be honest, I think it's largely because they just hate RTÉ because of how they have covered the league - I don't think it's any more complex than that. If Satan came in and did a deal that upset RTÉ they'd be saying 'Satan is great'.

"The aim is to get these guys to recognise that their interests actually lie in aligning with the wider football-supporting community. It doesn't matter how in to football you are, it's just good that more people are getting interested, at every level."

Nugent, who was co-author with Sam Smyth in 1993 of the best-selling book Dear John, and was chairperson and co-founder in 1988 of New Consensus, the non-party "peace group", said this was the first time he had involved himself in Irish sporting politics.

"I've been politically active in a whole load of things over the years, but I've never been involved in the politics of football because football has always been my escape. But now that I've started looking at it I can see the whole thing is a disaster the way its run, from top to bottom."

The group will have its first public meeting in the City of Dublin Working Men's Club on Wellington Quay (beside the Clarence Hotel), at 8.0 next Monday evening.