MODERNISE football or see it die, is the view of Rangers boss Mac Gallienne. Jackson League football would be condemned to history if Gallienne got his way and it is his plan for a new under-21 league that has found receptive ears within the GFA hierarchy.
‘The Jackson has to go. It is a complete waste of time.
‘All you are doing is giving football to a bunch of guys who don’t want to make it or just aren’t good enough.’
If he had his way, Gallienne would introduce an under-21 league to replace the Jackson and Youth One leagues and provide a better stepping stone into Priaulx football.
‘The point of this is to provide a better learning curve.’
His plan would see the under-21 league cater for 17-year-olds upwards, thus increasing the upper youth age band from the two years at present to four.
He would also allow three over-age players on the pitch at any one time.
‘It will give coaches a better chance of making full use of their players.
‘Let’s have them play decent football and caring about it.
‘We have got to do something.
‘At the moment you are making up sides for the Jackson on a Sunday afternoon when no one wants to play. It doesn’t give them the hunger.
‘This would provide better football for our youngsters for a longer time.’
The Rangers boss, who is also at the heart of the club’s exciting new development plans at Les Vauxbelets, urges everyone in football to recognise the need to do something about a game he does not consider to be dying . . . yet.
‘People are just bored with it, but it’s not dying.
‘Football is still big business but we have made it mundane, boring. We need to get the crowds back in.
‘We don’t have to make wholesale changes because I think that the Priaulx could be an exciting league again if we put the right structure in place.’
Article posted on 23rd May, 2007 - 12.00am
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