HOW deep in your pockets would you dig to transform Guernsey football? A day’s wages. Two even?
It would be worthwhile, I promise, providing you with fun, occasional despair, a real sense of involvement and added pleasure from watching better football.
For a couple of hundred quid, you might even have a say in team selection and whether the coach gets the sack.
Ebbsfleet United of the Blue Square Premier Division this week agreed a deal with fans’ website, MyFootballClub to be taken over.
The 20,000 MyFootballClub members each paid £35 to provide a £700,000 takeover pot and they will all own an equal share in the club.
In return, they get to have a vote on transfers, player selection and all major decisions like whether the manager keeps his job.
The takeover is seen as a landmark in British football, given the website’s stated intention of involving the members so radically in the running of the club, particularly with team selection.
And it has made me think . . . why not Guernsey?
Funding is the only major stumbling block to a Guernsey United [working title only] starting out on the FA national league ladder.
It would cost a minimum £100,000 a season to compete home and away on the English league ladder, but transfer the Ebbsfleet United scenario, or something similar to it, to Guernsey and then it becomes financially feasible.
Every week Guernsey United would play either home or away and, just likes our rugby stars, get the chance to rise through the ranks.
Our best players would have a weekly opportunity to catch the eyes of opposition managers and scouts and develop their own football career at a time when it harder than ever to become a professional footballer.
For the shareholder members and fans, we see our community team develop in front of our own eyes and make the big decisions.
Now, this may sound silly to some, but it could so easily work under the following framework.
1 - A formation committee with GFA backing is put in place to create an independent team - Guernsey United (working title).
2 - Guernsey United FC or whatever is formed and becomes affiliated to a UK league, perhaps as low as the Hampshire League or, perhaps as high as Division One South in the Ryman.
3 - An islandwide shareholders appeal backed by a vigorous PR campaign.
4 - A nominated island coach and managerial team are given the task of signing up the 20 best players available, more if it is decided to field a reserve team in the Priaulx League.
5 - An interactive club website to be launched, enabling members to communicate with the management on a range of issues.
6 - The initial shareholders’ appeal concluded, the club administration is confirmed by an inaugural general meeting. Shareholders to have a maximum 51% controlling interest, allowing the remaining 49% of shares to be purchased by benefactors or friends of the club.
7 - The club becomes operational with the members having a hands-on say in the controlling of the club, just as is the case with Ebbsfleet.
8 - Guernsey United climb through the UK ranks, signing non-local players if they so wish on semi-professional terms.
9- Guernsey football becomes instantly more appetising to players, fans, sponsors, the media and the island as a whole.
10 - Once established, the GFA’s involvement is ended and Guernsey United becomes an independent company, winning and losing, on their own two feet. Which means if Guernsey United goes to the wall, the GFA is not hurt in any way.
As for the Priaulx clubs?
Life as normal with the existing transfer system providing for an easy flow between ‘United’ and the rest of the GFA clubs.
Those players good enough and with the desire to fulfil their potential, get to play for United, the best of the rest at domestic league level.
Sure the Priaulx clubs would be weaker, but Guernsey football would have a much brighter future.
* Got an opinion on a ‘Guernsey United’. Then contact us in any of these ways: voicemail phone: 240230; fax 240235; email: sport@guernsey-press.com
Loading ...
Share this article:
What are these?