No European football a ‘kick in the teeth’ for Drogheda fans

Fans of Drogheda United have described the club’s expulsion from European football as a “kick in the teeth”.

The Irish Premier Division club was expelled from the 2025-26 Uefa Conference League under a rule which states two clubs in the same competition cannot be under the same ownership.

US-based multi-club football organisation also own Danish side Silkeborg who also qualified for the competition.

Drogheda United’s appeal against the dismissal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on Monday.

Fan Dave Carabini said he is “deflated, numb and frustrated” by the announcement on Monday.

“It’s a farce,” Mr Carabini said.

Drogheda faced Shamrock Rovers on Monday night, hours after the announcement by Cas but this did little to dampen the mood.

Mr Carabini said he had “never seen the ground rocking so much”.

“We will back the team no matter what.”

Jake Davies described Monday as a “very sad day” but support shown at the game made him “proud to be a Drogheda fan”.

Mr Davies added that the decision left him “shocked”.

“I had never been to a European game with Drogheda before,” he said.

“We need to start thinking about multi-club ownership and next year we have to be prepared.”

Mr Davies said the owners of the club have done a lot of good for the club, but he “doesn’t understand why they would buy Silkeborg”.

Eoin Reid said he was “absolutely sickened” by Monday’s announcement.

“Europeans nights are what everyone dreams about.”

Mr Reid said that the feeling in the town is “mixed”.

“There was a weird, electric atmosphere around the town on Monday. People didn’t really want to talk.”

But he added that when it came to the match the fans got behind the team.

Local football reporter, Barry Landy said it had been “a funny couple of weeks”.

“There has not been to much anger from fans at the owners, but more a sense of defiance with anti-Uefa and anti-FAI chants at the game against Shamrock Rovers.

“Fans are standing strong.”

He added that the owners have been “fairly transparent”.

Mr Landy added that Drogheda are a club “on the up” but there is a “mood of deflation”.

Uefa rules mean the lower-ranked team, in this case Drogheda, are excluded from the competition.

Drogheda qualified after winning the FAI Cup in November 2024 as a semi-professional side.

However, Silkeborg’s seventh-place finish in the Danish league outweighs Drogheda’s ninth place in the League of Ireland Premier Division.

Trivela bought Silkeborg shortly after Drogheda’s FAI Cup triumph.

In a statement, Drogheda expressed their “great heartbreak and disbelief” at the Cas decision.

“We strongly disagree with this decision, and had hoped and believed that the principles of fairness and common sense would prevail,” the club said.

“After months of engagement, constructive dialogue, countless hours of legal preparation, and multiple proposals based on frameworks that have been accepted in the past, we have come up short.

“Despite genuine and vocal support across the football world, the ruling did not fall in our favour. We are heartbroken by the outcome.”

Uefa advanced its assessment date to 1 March rather than June, but the Cas panel found that this change had been properly communicated by Uefa and that Drogheda ought to have known about it.

A majority of the panel also rejected Drogheda’s submissions on alleged unequal treatment by Uefa.