Vale Rec third-team players swig from the Railway Cup which, after being contested for 95 years, was won for possibly the very last time last evening. (Picture by Daniel Guerin, 0561049)
BACK us or sack us.
The Guernsey Football Association board yesterday delivered the biggest ultimatum in their 115-year history by telling the clubs that to reject their five-year plan would lead to the entire nine-man board resigning.
And in a surprise twist to the story, GFA board chairman Dave Nussbaumer plans to stay at the helm for another year. ‘We have the unanimous belief that local football has to change,’ said Nussbaumer yesterday.
‘We have been working together as a board for three years and we will see this through together, or go together.’
On his own role, the GFA chairman said his announcement that he would not be seeking re-election, made the morning after the GFA’s open forum meeting on 3 March, had been carried out after he misunderstood the terms of reference for his own position.
‘Unbeknown to me I had another year. It’s a two-year position and should our plan be accepted I am happy to stay on.’
Nussbaumer and fellow board members Jeff Vidamour and Chris Schofield yesterday painted the full picture from the board’s point of view.
They insist that there is no going back for a committee who have painstakingly spent many hours over the last three years piecing together a plan for change they see as necessary to make the domestic game not only more appealing but to raise standards.
When the plan is with the Football Association on 1 May, there is no going back.
The annual meeting will serve only to rubber-stamp the rules and regulations of the tinkered competitions and they will be voted upon en bloc.
Should the GFA clubs reject those proposals not only will the board step aside, but the lifeblood FA funding of the local game will, as a direct consequence, be withdrawn.
While recognising the element of coercion in this new pronouncement, the GFA see it as the only way to get radical changes past the clubs.
‘We have given the clubs the chance to express their views, but as a body we believe that an ultimatum is necessary,’ said the chairman.
‘We can’t keep dragging our heels. It is imperative we change and if the clubs want us to run football, they have to go with us, even though they may be uncomfortable with changes.
‘We need to try things. If some things don’t work out as we hope they will, we can always go back. Nothing is set in stone.’
It will be intriguing to see the reaction of not only the GFA clubs but also the satellite Sunday Soccer and Business leagues which potentially stand to fold as players are told they can sign for only one GFA-affiliated club.
Should the SSL and Business League wish to remain they will have to do so with players who are not signed for a GFA senior club and, theoretically, will lose access to pitches as well as entry to the local FA Cup.
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