The Guernsey Football Association is just about to go two better and complete a triplaris horribilis, one which leaves the sport in a parlous state regardless of the result of next Thursday’s GFA annual meeting.
It all started to go pear-shaped in Shetland in 2005 and since then football has spiralled downwards, culminating in this most unseemly of rows between board and clubs.
It has not only been tiresome, in the extreme, but the consequences will be felt for years to come.
Sadly, very sadly, here is a sport which does not know how to help itself, being riddled with self-interested clubs who, in the main, lack courage.
Northerners Athletic Club, the island’s second-oldest, has a proud history on the field, but its actions in recent times have severely blackened their reputation.
It culminated this week with their appalling statement accusing the GFA board of directors of being ‘out of touch’.
The temerity of it.
It is clubs like North and Vale Rec that are out of touch in a modern era when any sport standing still is certain to lose ground on its rivals.
The GFA had recognised that and put many hours of studied work into the use and progress of young players in a bid to breathe some new life into the local game.
To suggest that the people running football have come up with a plan on the back of a cigarette packet is insulting in the extreme.
It’s laughable of North to release a statement where they talk of ‘a haemorrhaging of players’ after a decade in which the outstanding success of its youth system has been based on elitism and a disregard for the welfare of the player who does not come up to the mark.
Mind you, North is not alone in suddenly taking on a pious stance, the disease of hypocritical virtuousness having spread across the Grand Fort Road to the Corbet Field.
Vale, who will also fail to support the board’s 16 to 18 development league plan, apparently is also very worried about the future of so many of their young players.
Strange that, because last season the figures show they did not seem overly bothered to look after all.
Readers might be interested to know that Vale will have 23 players who fall into the 16/17 age bracket this coming season, if they all sign again.
Most of these will be Youth Two who will be moving up, but four of them were not afforded a single match last season.
The GFA’s move towards rolling subs in all leagues up to the Priaulx League is a bid to involve more players and encourage clubs to give fringe players more of the action.
And the figures show they need to. Last season, of the 143 players who fell into the 16/17 category, 36 (25%) played in five games or fewer, despite the use of rolling subs.
And while Sylvans prevaricate on supporting the GFA’s plan, it is as good a time as any to highlight the fact that of the 30 players eligible to play for them in their Youth One championship-winning season, only 16 played in six or more games to qualify for a league medal.
The message is that it is the clubs who pick their teams, so it is a bit rich of them to say that the GFA is introducing a damaging proposal when they are already pretty handy on the self-harm front.
The whole concept of the GFA plan is to ensure matches are competitive and challenging. Results such as North’s 35-0 Youth Three win over Rangers last season suggest there is still a lot of work to do on that front.
As for the long-awaited AGM: I just hope it spells the end of the damaging in-fighting which has made a mockery of the game.
Queen got off lightly – GFA complete a third year of misery
THE Queen had just one ‘annus horribilis’.
The Guernsey Football Association is just about to go two better and complete a triplaris horribilis, one which leaves the sport in a parlous state regardless of the result of next Thursday’s GFA annual meeting.
It all started to go pear-shaped in Shetland in 2005 and since then football has spiralled downwards, culminating in this most unseemly of rows between board and clubs.
It has not only been tiresome, in the extreme, but the consequences will be felt for years to come.
Sadly, very sadly, here is a sport which does not know how to help itself, being riddled with self-interested clubs who, in the main, lack courage.
Northerners Athletic Club, the island’s second-oldest, has a proud history on the field, but its actions in recent times have severely blackened their reputation.
It culminated this week with their appalling statement accusing the GFA board of directors of being ‘out of touch’.
The temerity of it.
It is clubs like North and Vale Rec that are out of touch in a modern era when any sport standing still is certain to lose ground on its rivals.
The GFA had recognised that and put many hours of studied work into the use and progress of young players in a bid to breathe some new life into the local game.
To suggest that the people running football have come up with a plan on the back of a cigarette packet is insulting in the extreme.
It’s laughable of North to release a statement where they talk of ‘a haemorrhaging of players’ after a decade in which the outstanding success of its youth system has been based on elitism and a disregard for the welfare of the player who does not come up to the mark.
Mind you, North is not alone in suddenly taking on a pious stance, the disease of hypocritical virtuousness having spread across the Grand Fort Road to the Corbet Field.
Vale, who will also fail to support the board’s 16 to 18 development league plan, apparently is also very worried about the future of so many of their young players.
Strange that, because last season the figures show they did not seem overly bothered to look after all.
Readers might be interested to know that Vale will have 23 players who fall into the 16/17 age bracket this coming season, if they all sign again.
Most of these will be Youth Two who will be moving up, but four of them were not afforded a single match last season.
The GFA’s move towards rolling subs in all leagues up to the Priaulx League is a bid to involve more players and encourage clubs to give fringe players more of the action.
And the figures show they need to. Last season, of the 143 players who fell into the 16/17 category, 36 (25%) played in five games or fewer, despite the use of rolling subs.
And while Sylvans prevaricate on supporting the GFA’s plan, it is as good a time as any to highlight the fact that of the 30 players eligible to play for them in their Youth One championship-winning season, only 16 played in six or more games to qualify for a league medal.
The message is that it is the clubs who pick their teams, so it is a bit rich of them to say that the GFA is introducing a damaging proposal when they are already pretty handy on the self-harm front.
The whole concept of the GFA plan is to ensure matches are competitive and challenging. Results such as North’s 35-0 Youth Three win over Rangers last season suggest there is still a lot of work to do on that front.
As for the long-awaited AGM: I just hope it spells the end of the damaging in-fighting which has made a mockery of the game.
Share this article:
What are these?