THE Guernsey Football Association has agreed to affiliate a new club – the name of which has not been released.
The GFA board has told the backers of ‘Guernsey United’ that affiliation would be agreed only if they were prepared to change the club’s name, which has now been accepted.
‘Following an initial application and discussions between all parties, including GFA clubs, the GFA has confirmed the affiliation of a new club,’ said GFA chairman Mark Le Tissier (pictured).
‘Our existing clubs made their feelings known to the GFA board, but the board has always said that if a new club met the set criteria, they would be affiliated and the member clubs were aware of that.
‘We wish the new club well in their aspirations for entering the Kent Premier League for next season.
‘We are pleased to be able to finally conclude this issue and now both sides can concentrate on the development of football again. We will continue to do all we can to take Guernsey football forward under our four-year plan.’
A statement from ‘Guernsey United’ said that the club were pleased with the decision, that they were grateful to the GFA and that they could now continue pursuing ‘exciting objectives’.
‘The GFA board and our representatives met on Monday evening when we answered many points which were of concern to both the board and the island’s senior member clubs,’ the statement read.
‘One of the sticking points was the contentious suffix of “United” in the title of our new club. As a consequence we have agreed to operate under an altogether different name which has been made known to and accepted by the GFA board, but for the time being will not be made public knowledge.
‘We will now focus fully on progressing all of our plans for gaining entry into the Kent Premier League commencing in 2009-10.
‘Also, we have notified the GFA board of our intention to enter a team in next season’s under-21 development league whether or not we are able to compete in the Kent League.
‘We wish to reiterate that we have nothing but the best intentions to develop young footballers of Guernsey and will work towards one day operating teams at all levels of local football.’
Both parties will be saying nothing further for the time being.gleprevost@guernsey-press.com
Article posted on 12th November, 2008 - 2.30pm
10 Article Comments
Why won’t the Guernsey United consortium (or what ever they are called now) listen to what the clubs, the people who really care about local football and the experienced individuals who have seen or been involved with this type of venture before, only to see it eventually fail, have to say.
Make no mistake this is going to blow Guernsey football wide apart and will, without doubt, just like the other domiciles’ ventures into this precipice – eventually and expensively fail.
This consortium now states that eventually they will have teams playing in all levels of football – but what happens in the meantime?
They preach that we are being negative, that they want to put our players in the spotlight and give them a better level of week in week out football.
But for what price! The cost to us is our best players, the lost chances of the second tier of talent to improve with the help of the better players, the standard of local football will obviously diminish and clubs will obviously lose their self created talent.
Income streams such as sponsorship are becoming harder to find and I see local football, and the GFA, struggling to compete with this consortium to fund our local football and representative sides.
This whole scenario is a total disaster – I ask that all players think about where they have come from – where they have played their mini/youth/senior football up to now and I hope that they will remain loyal to their clubs and their Island.Please do not be selfish, put your club and your team mates first. Do not be short sighted, the grass is not always greener on the other side, do not be involved with anything that can diminish the standard of local football.
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Gerald – 100% agree and I am not the only one.
If they have to do this then why not go the whole hog and become a Channel Islands team made up of taking the best from all islands – FC Channel Islands. This way each league will lose less of their best players – if they decide that they can go to the UK 2 weekends every month
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I have a suggestion regarding a name for the new club. How about the Muppets? The manager’s a Muppet (just look at his Muratt record), the mouthpiece is a Muppet (you only have to read his column to recognise that) and the other backers (and indeed players should it ever materialise) are Muppets for bringing about the worst change that has ever been proposed for Guernsey football.
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agree with most comments above, i do hope any players involved are aware that they could be
playing in front of crowds!!of between 28 and 90 last weeks attendances, an average of 56 per match,and that was in the kent premier league,also i think the idea of players being noticed is not on,clubs in the u.k. are fully aware of any outstanding talent in the channel islands.just seen hilary sarres comments,couldnt agree more
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Laurie
Can you point me in the direction of Hilary Sarre’s comments please
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gerald,bbc radio guernsey
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Thanks Laurie – I have now seen Hilary’s comments and they are excellent
Why when so many well respected and experienced individuals are making it so clear that this whole situation is destined for failure and will also be to the detriment of local football do this consortium continue to press forwards with this incredibly selfish project.
Again I ask the players to remain with their Clubs, to show loyalty and care for Island football as a whole.
I also ask the consortium to stop and think about what they are doing. What the consequences of their actions will be in the short and long term.
I am very, very concerned about this – the only thing that can stop the consortium in their tracks is for the best players to stay with their Clubs.
If the consortium cannot field a team that can compete on a weekly basis at County level the project will be deemed as a farce and interest will wain very quickly. Sponsors and finance opportunities will quickly fall away when it becomes obvious that the team is not competitive.
God I just wish this subject would disappear!!
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Your welcome gerald, i am not even in guernsey at the moment, and it seems i am more worried about local football than a lot of people who should be
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Maybe there is a god up there Laurie – after praying for something to bring this issue to a halt the Kent Leagues members could yet be our saviours!!
Let’s just hope that at least one of them votes against ‘Guernsey United’ joining their league at their AGM in June – this will be enough to kill off the Kent League proposal – it still may just delay the inevitable but I hope it will give people in Guernsey time to think about what this is all about
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It seems the clubs in kent league are becoming more aware of the problems involved,i must send them a Christmas card, they could just be saving guernsey football
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