THE GALWAY UNITED Supporters Trust (GUST) is involved in ongoing discussions with the FAI and the county’s other two Airticity League teams in a bid to form an alliance.
The group announced last month that they would be severing ties with the club and submitted their own licence application to participate in this season’s First Division.
However, with rumours emerging that their plans are unlikely to meet the FAI’s minimum standards and just six weeks until the league begins, GUST are examining other avenues and have approached Salthill Devon and Mervue United about the possibility of achieving a merger.
Preliminary talks with Salthill were held in Galway city on Tuesday evening but according to GUST Public Relations Officer Vincent O’Connor, a deal couldn’t be agreed upon.
We went to the meeting with our proposals and they came with theirs but unfortunately neither party was satisfied with what was being put on the table,” O’Connor told TheScore this afternoon.
“There are plans for discussions in the near future, however.”
Mervue, meanwhile, have made a verbal offer to link up and they are due to sit down with GUST in the coming days.
If some middle ground can be found, it would see the clubs combine their names (eg Galway Mervue United), while they would be likely to keep the maroon and white colours and Terryland would almost certainly be the new entity’s home.
“Terryland Park is a fantastic stadium and is full of history so it would be a real shame if there wasn’t Airtricity League there this season,” added O’Connor.
A failure to find a solution would be disastrous as it would effectively spell the end of Galway United after 75 years in existence and 35 seasons participating in the League of Ireland.
