Galway united in a common cause

On Soccer: The club's campaign to win a return to the top flight by traditional means may have got off to a slightly indifferent start, but after enduring more than their share of upheavals, at Galway United they've learned the value of taking a slightly longer-term perspective.

With relegation four years ago came financial problems that threatened the club's very existence but having picked itself up and dusted itself down with help from neighbours Salthill Devon, United are currently putting the finishing touches to a makeover they believe will equip them well for anything the FAI might have in mind during the potentially turbulent months ahead.

While other clubs have sought to ensure things went well on the field, United have concentrated, gambled perhaps, on getting things right behind the scenes with financial, structural and administrative problems all addressed over the course of the past few seasons.

In most areas they already meet - or have firm plans to meet - the requirements of the FAI's licensing scheme for a Premier Division club and they recently revealed their intention to fulfil their player development obligation by way of a novel extension of their long-standing partnership with the Galway and District League.

Under the scheme United will invest in the league's underage structures by providing coaching to the best players from across the 57 local clubs in much the way the FAI's technical plan envisages being done by the association around the country.

United's youth sides will effectively be representative teams for the Galway area with players remaining registered to their original clubs. The intention in both camps is that links between the area's only senior club and its many neighbours can be strengthened considerably while the often bitter rivalries that have historically blighted the game up and down the country can be overcome.

As part of the project, the league will take a 30 per cent shareholding in the club (without the associated financial risk) and nominate three members to its board. The intention is that it will have the opportunity to influence the future direction taken by United and provide feedback to its member clubs.

The new structure, as it happens, bears a close resemblance to that of the average GAA county board, something that is acknowledged by John Clery, the local league's chairman, who sees the closer integration of United into the local football family as the logical conclusion of an entirely desirable process.

"Well, we've been working closely with them on the development of the ground since 1994 and we are involved in just about every aspect of the development of the game within the country while they are the top of the local pyramid," he says, "so this certainly makes sense to us."

That the scheme received the support of the local clubs, when they voted on it last month, suggests it makes sense to them too.

There remains, however, a great deal of work to be done and those involved concede it might be five years before the substantive fruits of the partnership begin to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the collaboration has already generated a sense of unity within the local game.

For United, though, the timing of the initiative is of central importance. With Genesis having recommended a dramatic shake-up of the league generally no one is quite sure what changes lie around the corner. What those behind the scheme hope, however, is that a 10-team "super-league" really is to be established after what critics might describe as a beauty contest then United will be sitting rather pretty.

With a large geographical catchment area, a ground that looks set to gain a new 1,500-seat stand within a matter of months and a grounding in the community that several of its competitors could currently only dream of, leading club officials like chairman John Fallon and the chair of its executive committee, Nial O'Reilly, feel there is a strong case that any reorganisation should include United at the expense of less well developed outfits.

Clearly, though, there is an awareness that sporting criteria may yet be critical when it comes to any club staking its claim for a place in a reorganised top flight and with this in mind United bumped on-field success several places up its priority list during the recent close season.

The result was that the club's manager Stephen Lally was able to go out and sign seven new players, most of them established figures with a grounding in the area. A good deal was expected of a side that now includes the likes of Alan Gough, Ciarán Foley and Alan Murphy and while they have lost just once in their opening 10 games a failure to put teams away has proven costly so far.

Six games drawn amount to a lot of points dropped and there is something of a consensus that if they had been little more ruthless they might be top of the division by now instead of third behind both Limerick and their next league opponents, Shamrock Rovers.

Still, with the bulk of the side under 25 and many having only just arrived, Lally believes that they will get better as the season progresses, particularly now that, with their recent 6-2 defeat of Monaghan United, they have shown what they are capable of on their day.

If he is right, club officials insist, the potential exists for dramatic growth with turnover expected from its current €600,000 a year to half as much again in the first year of participation in the league's top flight. The progress certainly won't stop there, they insist, but that, as they say, is a story for another day.