This Is Guernsey

By Rob Batiste

NOBODY likes taking medicine, but for an unqualified period footballers and our clubs are going to have to get used to tasting the foul stuff.

But while it is being shoved down their throats by the GFA board and, many will argue, distastefully so, it simply has to be done.

Because the patient could not be trusted to look after itself, or in some quarters admit they were even sick, the GFA had no option but to do it and on Monday of this week it unceremoniously told the GFA clubs to swallow this or else.

Predictably, the else has not gone down well in some quarters and there has been much stomach urging as a consequence.

Many natives from all sections of local football, from the GFA to the social centre circles of Sunday Soccer and the Business League, are very restless.

Encouragingly, some high-profile players and even administrators have backed the changes.

As they say, something has to be done and let us hope that in a few years it’s recognised that the board who ran Guernsey football in 2008 will be seen as the body who rescued it from a slow death.

The board is right to take the stance it has.

I don’t stomach every point of their five-year plan but if that is what the people who, unpaid and elected to run our game, decide must be done, then they deserve to be supported.

After all, it is they who give so much of their free time for the benefit of others and why should they work for something they do not believe in.

Put in their position, I certainly wouldn’t.

Our cricket clubs have been down this same troubled road and after initially struggling to come to terms with the heavy-handed tactics of the sport’s hierarchy, are now grateful to it for insisting on ‘managing’ the sport, being proactive and not just reactive.

The days of football democracy ended with council and it’s high time the clubs realised there is no return to the clumsy old ways, however charming and orderly as they are perceived to have been.

The next two-and-a-half months promise to be intriguing, not least because finally the dog is wagging the tail as opposed to the opposite.

When the June transfer window opens surely a record number of players will be on the move as they make their choice to play for one club and one club only.

Finally, football’s  hoppers who were happy to flit between the GFA structure and the two social leagues while selfishly answering only to their own wishes and giving little thought for the needs of the GFA club who one moment think they have 30 players to pick from and a couple of months later half that number will have to nail his colours to one team only.

Social clubs will go to the wall and only the strongest, most committed. Ambitious and best organised will survive.

At the same time the GFA will finally get to discover just how many open-aged players it has playing the game.

Properly packaged, the concept of the new league structure should be seen as exciting and nothing to worry about, the start of a fresh, new era.

I can’t wait.

* JUST which is our most successful sport?

Once upon a time half a century ago it was it was unquestionably football.

Twenty years ago it was squash.

Into the 21st century the indoor bowls fraternity would no doubt state their case for being tops, as would athletics.

But the answer might just be swimming.

It’s certainly been another momentous week for the Speedo brigade with Ian Powell placing fourth in the 200m butterfly final at the British Championships and Olympic trials, four places ahead of fellow Barracuda Tom Hollingsworth.

To unearth one national finalist is a remarkable achievement for an island the population of ours, but two is simply staggering and the production line of talent shows no sign of slowing with Jeremy Osborne among the best of his age group in the country and a certain Kristina Neves showing all the hallmarks of being possibly the island’s best ever performer.

Powell and Hollingsworth may find the Olympic door closed for the time being, but they are putting Sarnian swimming on the national map, inspiring dozens below them which can be only good news for the top coaches at Barracudas and the GSC.