ALDERNEY’S captain Simon Benfield has slammed two of his island’s best players, Steve Concanen and Richard Moore, for refusing to play against Guernsey in today’s Muratti semi-final at Mount Hale. ‘I think it’s disgusting that they don’t want to play for us,’ said Benfield.
‘Steve Concanen doesn’t want to play for us and he has chosen to play for Guernsey in the past. Richard Moore learnt all his football from all the older lads in the team and now he doesn’t want to play for us.
‘Out of respect he could have paid us back by playing for us. But now it seems his commitments lie elsewhere as he’s chosen to play for Guernsey.
‘If he’s good enough to play for Guernsey - all the best to him but he was born in Alderney. If you could choose between 10 caps for Guernsey or just one game for us for a win, all the lads would play for Alderney.
‘But obviously Richard Moore doesn’t think that, nor does Steve Concanen. I think it’s about time someone said something.’
The issue of Alderney players choosing to play for Guernsey is something which Benfield clearly has a gripe about. He says he not the only person who is upset about it and he wants the Guernsey Football Association to take action.
‘It’s a sore subject on this island when people don’t want to play for their island,’ he said.
‘Maybe the FA should do something about it. If you’re born and bred in Alderney, then you should play for Alderney.
‘I’ve got no qualms about lads wanting to play in the Priaulx but when it comes to playing for your island, you should play for your island.’
This is not the first time that this type of furore has surrounded 21-year-old Concanen. The St Martin’s defender used to be a feature of Steve Ogier’s Guernsey squad but he was named to play for his native Alderney against the greens in the Muratti two years.
Yet come the day he was not involved.
In his defence, Concanen said he had been out of the game for nine months and that does not want to deny another player the chance to represent Alderney.
‘It’d be unfair to take someone else’s position,’ he said.
‘I’m looking to get back into it next season. I’m going to play at Saints again.
‘I’m not ruling it out [playing for Alderney again] but at the moment no.’
Fellow Ridunian Moore is now resident in Guernsey and the 17-year-old has broken his way into the Priaulx-topping North side.
The midfielder is also a regular in the island under-18s and looks sets to start in the Junior Muratti at the end of the season. In response to Benfield’s criticism, 17-year-old Moore says he wasn’t ever asked to play until it was too late.
‘He [Simon Benfield] rang me yesterday to ask me to play,’ said Moore yesterday.
‘I thought it was a bit off to call me up on a Thursday to play on Saturday. It’s quite a big game as well.
‘The Jackson coach wouldn’t ring me on a Thursday. Also if I played someone else would have been dropped.
‘I don’t know what’s going to happen after I’m 18 as I will have to choose Guernsey or Alderney.’
Benfield disputes this claim saying that Moore had actually contacted him.
‘That’s false, he telephoned me two weeks ago and he telephoned me yesterday [Thursday] enquiring if he could play,’ he said.
‘He knew what the position was six months ago. I said it was always open to him but he hasn’t accepted it.’
Article posted on 17th March, 2007 - 12.00am
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