THE Sunday Soccer League has de-affiliated from the Guernsey Football Association. At their AGM at the RAFA Club last night, the organisation followed the Business League in breaking away from the umbrella body and with it saw their three top officials step down.
Scott Falla resigned as treasurer and is walking away from all forms of football, while secretary Mark Fallaize (pictured) and president Keith Robins chose to focus on their GFA commitments.
Robins is heavily involved with Bels, while Fallaize is a GFA referee. Both men said that it was ‘their personal preferences and nothing against the Sunday League’.
The majority vote in favour of de-affiliation had been predicted, mainly because of the GFA’s controversial ‘one player, one club’ rule and a compromise wasn’t enough to save the day.
However, despite his resignation, Falla believes that the GFA is heading in the right direction, although he feels that they have plenty of work still to do, much of it because of the past.
‘It is my personal opinion that this is a sad time for Guernsey football and the outgoing GFA committee have done little to pave a positive way forward.
‘However, I do believe that Mark Le Tissier will, in time, put this right. Mark, Neil [Laine] and Gary [Cortez] do have football at heart and I wish the best for the future,’ he said.
Falla was also scathing of some of the critics of the ‘social’ leagues.
‘I do hope that the likes of Henry Davey who started the “let’s get rid of social football” movement, enjoy the mess that this has now created. During the AGM he was the one person who complained about the very rule that has sent the social leagues to de-affiliation [the one player one team rule].
‘This will go on to prove that GFA football needs a shake up at a much deeper level,’ he said.
Robins insisted that there were no hard feelings and hoped that the future would be positive for the social leagues.
‘I do wish both the Business League and the Sunday League the very best for the future,’ he said.
The split means that the SSL sides cannot enter the Guernsey FA Cup or use GFA pitches. Also, none of their players, coaches or administrators can have any involvement with the GFA or English FA, which was behind last night’s resignations.
Article posted on 1st August, 2008 - 2.30pm
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