REGISTRATIONS at first-team level and a hybrid 15-to-18 league to find Guernsey representatives in the annual Portsmouth Trophy junior ‘Upton’ are two surprise compromise moves being put forward by the GFA board.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, there is growing dissension among senior clubs to the association’s roughshod attitude to enforcing change and it is understood another meeting of club presidents is imminent.
The compromises, which have come out this week in a revised set of GFA competition rules and by-laws, do not impress at least two club supremos. Both Rangers’ Mac Gallienne (pictured) and St Martin’s Henry Davey have laughed off the idea of a short 15-to-18 league in which clubs play each other once to find Portsmouth Trophy representatives.
‘I don’t think it’s the way forward,’ said Gallienne, who has been a big supporter of the board’s bid for wholesale change.
‘You are casting aside older players for the sake of one trophy [the Portsmouth first played for in 1953].
‘It’s not a true reflection of the development league,’ Gallienne added.
Davey was scathing of the idea.
‘If you are going to do that, why the hell are they going to knock out the 15-to-18 league?’
He is puzzled why Guernsey are insistent on going down the route of 16-to-21 or 16-to-23 leagues, when it is not happening elsewhere and certainly not in Jersey where, he understands, the objective within the next five years is to build up sufficient playing numbers to have single-year leagues up to the age of 18.
‘What are these lads [16 to 18s] supposed to do from August to December and before their league starts?’ questioned the Saints president.
Gallienne is also unimpressed with the idea of a reversion to registrations at first-team level.
To counter any abuse of the GFA’s guidelines for the development league [16 to 23], the board proposes that players who have started a first-team game cannot play a development match within a 14-day period.
‘I don’t like the registration system,’ said Gallienne, who thinks clubs should be trusted.
‘Let’s be adult about it. I’d like to use my squad to the best of its ability.
‘Fourteen days is quite a long time.’
Jeff Vidamour, director for cups, leagues and grounds, said the thought behind the 14-day restriction stemmed from the association’s ethos to maximise the number of players within the GFA set-up.
‘We want a situation where players are playing in the leagues they should be in.’
He pointed to recent wholesale evidence of first-teamers playing second-team football.
‘Island players playing in the Jackson is absolute nonsense.
‘We want clubs to play more players in league fixtures.’
As for the move to play a round of old-style Youth One games, Vidamour said: ‘This is obviously to generate a team to play in the “Pompey” to play against Jersey.’
Article posted on 23rd May, 2008 - 2.30pm
Loading ...
Most Commented: