Ugly saga has put greater pressure on Mayo FC to succeed

Where I struggle most an as opinion writer is giving an opinion I am fully, 100% behind about a situation while it is ongoing. That is the student of History in me who prefers to reflect upon the facts at their conclusion rather than while events are unfolding.

It would have been easy to dismiss Joan of Arc as some daft French teenager with notions about herself in 1428 but with the benefit of time passing and the recording of historical fact, I can clearly and more succinctly proclaim her to be a daft French teenager with notions about herself who accomplished some extraordinary things beyond the capabilities of any normal human being.

I had a column ready to go last week about the fallout between Mayo FC and the Mayo Football League but the sports section of the Western People was quite full already, between hurling, FBD League and whatever else. In truth, I was quite glad when our sports editor Anthony Hennigan asked me to hold onto my thoughts for a week.

The first thing I did was chuck the column in the bin. In fact, I printed it out and threw it in the fireplace. A therapist once told me that is a good thing to do. It is cathartic. The paper turns to ash and you are symbolically and literally “letting go” of something. It is a simple ritual with a lot of power behind it. Try it next time you pay your electricity bill and you’ll see what I mean. That column was a piece of writing I needed to let go of, due to its sheer vitriol.

It was an angry write-up. It drove me mad that both sides in this situation had let it come to this. The words, “I’m sick to my teeth of,” featured more than once. Ethics were questioned. Comparisons were made to the Trump administration. The whole thing stopped just shy of name-calling and at one point I wondered if I could sneak an expletive past the watchful eye of our sports editor (I’ll give you one guess Ant, what it was usually hits the fan.) However, there are some guns you must stick to, and I maintain the prospect of hosting big-time League of Ireland football at Umbro Park is, in the long run, simply not good enough.

If you want to take a club to the highest level in this country, which one can only assume is the end goal for Mayo FC, to be among the very best, for that kind of spectacle, Milebush is below subpar in its current guise with its one cutesy little stand, a press box with no Wi-Fi, a clubhouse overdue a lick of paint and a woeful lack of pitches.

Feet have been dragged on developing floodlights as well. It is a great location for the likes of the Benson and McDonnell Cup finals but I would personally be embarrassed to welcome the likes of Bohs and Shelbourne to Umbro Park, again, taking a long view of things.

It is too small time a venue in its current state to match the supposedly lofty ambitions of Mayo FC. Mayo FC are seeking to develop new facilities but these things, they take time. For now, Umbro Park, for all its faults, is the best ground we have for Mayo FC and it has its price that should be paid.

It is a fact Mayo FC should not have expected to use Umbro Park long-term without some form of compensation. It is not a controversial thing to say and it was not an entirely big ask from the now defunct 2026 Mayo Football League Management Committee and many associated with Mayo FC would be inclined to agree.

I struggle to believe, nor do I want to believe, any member of that committee would have any intention of sabotaging Mayo FC. They wanted a fair price to be paid on fair terms. If Mayo FC’s men and women are playing senior football this year, that is adding extra pressure to the playing surface at Umbro Park and adds to the cost of upkeep in a major way. Like many things in life, that can only be mitigated with money.

There was nothing in that negotiation letter sent out to clubs about backdated payments either. A lot has been bandied about a rent-free period of two years that is either a baseless rumour or cold hard fact, depending on who you talk to. If it were true, because Mayo FC formed in June 2023 and player assessments began in the run up to the beginning of the 2024 season, then if there was a grace period of any sort, it would have expired in June 2025 or shortly after.

Reference was made to Mayo FC not making any contribution to the cost of lights, heating or running costs in the letter sent out by the League committee, but the attached proposal gave no indication Mayo FC were in any kind of rent arrears.

Overall, the forgotten column would not have aged well given how rapidly the situation has evolved in the last few days. The Connacht FA convened a meeting with the Mayo Football League last Tuesday evening and following on from that, the committee stepped down voluntarily and an EGM has been set for February 4 and that will, hopefully, be the end of a very short and sorry chapter for the League.

I had captured my emotional reaction well in my initial effort but upon reflection, I wasn’t that angry at all. In fact, it made me quite sad things had gone this far. There are some terrific people involved in the Mayo League who have devotion of the highest level to soccer in this county. If some of them don’t end up back in situ on the committee on the other side of the EGM, they should be commended for their lasting dedication to the sport, not criticised for how things ended.

What of Mayo FC then? After all, they were not in the room last Tuesday night. The meeting was nothing to do with them really. You could say their argument with the Mayo Football League was the face that launched a thousand ships but contrary to what you might have heard, Mayo FC had no official representation at that meeting. The focus of the story has shifted from the fallout between FC and League fully onto the League now.

A new League committee will be elected and while they may find themselves around the negotiating table once again with Mayo FC, ultimately time will pass by and the events of January 2026 while not completely forgotten, will be moved on from.

But for Mayo FC, they move on from here with a new weight of pressure added by this saga. Based on the reaction to the story of the League/FC fallout when it broke, much like poor old Joan of Arc when she was put on trial for heresy, Mayo FC weren’t winning too many supporters in the court of public opinion. For the first time in Irish history, the social media comments were skewed in favour of the landlord.

The aftermath of this saga puts Mayo FC in a somewhat vulnerable position. Their big news before Christmas, that they will enter the League of Ireland’s new third-tier, has been dampened by the past fortnight.

At this moment in time, it looks as though they have just about weathered the storm of the Mayo Football League fallout and they will march on into the 2026 season across their various age groups. Currently, signings to each team continue unabated, training sessions are a-go and people involved with the club remain optimistic about the future. Again, there are some good people running the show. They wouldn’t be in the new third-tier if the opposite were true.

The future comes thick and fast however and there is now an even more serious onus on them now to continue to make progress and to get on with developing their own facilities. They need to stand on their own two feet, sooner rather than later.

They cannot use Umbro Park free of charge ad nauseam while signing young players from local clubs affiliated with an association who are headquartered at Umbro Park. It feels a bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul and it would exacerbate the resentment that is already out there.

They need their own committee too, totally independent from the Mayo Football League. At most, an impartial Liaison Officer working between both committees to keep their matters independent of one another might be a runner. Overall, if there is to be peace in our time, League and FC will have to be a tenant-landlord style relationship from here on out and Mayo FC will have to get on with that until they have a roof of their own over their heads. That is modern Ireland in a nutshell for young clubs and young people!

The pressure for Mayo FC to build was there to begin with and it ramped up with entry to the League of Ireland. Add in the Mayo League kerfuffle and you’re talking fever pitch. They need a win as much off the field as on it after what has unfolded.

An announcement of planning permission, a big Sports Capital Grant or perhaps the triple signing of Paul Doyle, Noe Baba and John Mountney ahead of the National League season in August. They need something to show the general public, many of whom became aware of Mayo FC for the first time following recent headlines, they are a thriving club with serious ambitions that is moving in the right direction.

Any hiccup from here on out will be more heavily scrutinised. Any in-roads to the League of Ireland made by another Mayo-based entity would be a massive blow. Another controversy akin to what has just unfolded, whatever form that may take, would be even more painful for Mayo FC.

It would be more fuel on the fire and let’s face it, that’s the last thing that Joan of Arc would need.