DAVE NUSSBAUMER has told the clubs that if the GFA board’s ‘five-year plan’ does not go ahead, Guernsey football will cease to receive funding from the English FA.
In addition, it will be seen as a vote of no confidence in the board and that is why it would have to go, nothing to do with holding clubs to ransom, said Nussbaumer (pictured).
The plan, which will radically change football on the island, include proposals for a 16-to-23 league to replace the Jackson and Youth One Leagues, a four-tier Priaulx League with promotion and relegation and rolling subs in all the leagues apart from the top flight.
The plan has certainly divided the local game and GFA chairman Nussbaumer yesterday sought to clarify the situation after earlier in the week telling dissenters it was time to ‘back us or sack us’.
He stressed that the GFA had been instructed by the English FA to create the plan as part of the overall FA National Game Strategy 2008-12 and that vital funding was at stake if it was not completed.
‘The reality of the situation is that the Guernsey football plan has to be with the FA by 1 May in order for the GFA to qualify for financial grants. If we delay beyond that date, we will not qualify,’ he said.
‘The FA template for the plan was provided on 27 December 2007 and thereafter the consultation process [as outlined in the plan] started. The GFA board have had four months to complete the process and prepare and submit the plan.’
Nussbaumer pointed out that the FA national game strategy requires all county associations to submit their plans for addressing its four key goals.
They are growth and retention, raising standards and addressing abusive behaviour, developing better players, particularly focusing on improving the quality of the 5-11 age group and running the game effectively.
To comply with English FA requirements, a draft plan was submitted by the GFA this week and was released to the public. A final submission will be with the English FA by 1 May and the plan will come into affect on 1 July.
The GFA supremo wants to underline that the June AGM which is set to take place mid-June, will not result in any vote on the plan.
‘The plan will not be voted on at the AGM as it is the GFA county plan from 1 May,’ he said.
‘What has to happen between 1 May and the AGM is all the rule changes that will give effect to the plan. ‘These rule changes will be taken en bloc because they will reflect the plan content.
‘At the AGM the shareholders will either accept the rule changes or reject them. If they are rejected, then the Guernsey football plan can not take effect from 1 July and the GFA will not qualify for grant funding.’
As for the board’s threat to resign if the necessary rule changes are not accepted, he said it was nothing extraordinary.
‘The plan represents the board’s considered view for shaping Guernsey football in line with the national strategy for the benefit of all involved in the game and it was always accepted that it is impossible to please all the people all of the time.
‘As in any company situation, if at the AGM the shareholders reject the board’s proposal, that is a clear vote of no confidence in that board and realistically the directors, having prepared their plan, have little option but to offer their resignation in order to permit a new board to prepare another plan.’
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