If there is one cure for local tensions in Galway football, it does not come better than a takeover of the county’s League of Ireland club by Saudi Arabian investors.

Years of parochial mutterings will be parked for a couple of hours on Monday evening at the Connacht Hotel when the gathering of around 80 members of the Galway United Friends Co-operative will decide whether to accept a proposal on behalf of Middle Eastern businessman Mohammed al-Homaidani.

No obstacles are expected to block the motion, a potentially seismic development for a county long bedevilled by a litany of infighting among various factions. Those squabbles have tended to centre on power and influence, something that will not be debatable if and when cash is pumped into