THE Guernsey Football Association hope to be in a position to name Steve Ogier’s successor as island manager in the next fortnight.
GFA chairman Mark Le Tissier (pictured) admitted as much yesterday while confirming that the Guernsey FA Cup WILL go ahead and be bolstered by teams from the new under-21 development league.
‘We’re going to have one [an FA Cup] and entries close on Monday,’ he said. The hope is to have a total entry approaching 20 sides, making the event far more worthwhile than imagined after so many teams deaffiliated and jumped ship to the social leagues.
‘We’re extremely pleased to keep the continuity of the competition and hope in future it will get back to the size of the previous one. We are confident it will get back to that level.’
Whether the competition will carry any prize money in addition to the trophy and the glory has still to be decided.
Under Fletcher Sports’ sponsorship of the competition, the winners collected £2,000.
But with no sponsor in place for the 2008/9 event, it may not be feasible to provide a cash bonus this time.
In the meantime Le Tissier’s team of directors is set to be bolstered by the acquisition of referee and former Guernsey Press journalist James Falla as a director with responsibility for public relations.
Falla will go straight into Monday’s board debate on who should replace Ogier as the senior island coach, the urgency of filling the position being driven by the need to select an Island Games squad sooner rather than later.
The GFA is in the process of finding which players are available for selection and Le Tissier said appointing a coach is ‘not too far in the distant future’.
The GFA leader also has high hopes for the island’s new football development officer.
Paul Mooney, recruited from the UK, started work on Monday.
‘He has spent his first week familiarising himself with the local football scene.’
Article posted on 4th October, 2008 - 9.30am
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