SKY Sports have been lined up to give coverage of the inaugural Guernsey Football Tournament – if it goes ahead. Organiser Iain McKenzie has been in the island this past week and is more hopeful than ever that the week long, four-team event involving Japan’s under-21 national side, Boca Juniors of Argentina, Glasgow Rangers and Paris Saint Germain will take place this July. McKenzie hopes to make a positive announcement in the next fortnight, after various sponsorship deals are tied up.

‘Sky Sports will put out the programme on Sky Sports One, Two and Three and there will be a couple of peak-time viewings,’ said the man, whose company, Sporting Eventualities, has successfully run the Jersey Football Tournament for several years.

‘The clubs will be sending their strongest possible squads,’ said McKenzie, and in the case of Rangers, that could mean as many as five of the players who played in last weekend’s Old Firm clash against Celtic playing here in the last week of July.’

The rules of the tournament state that players must be under-21 on 1 September 2004, although two over-age players are permitted as long as they are under-23.

The tournament is due to run from Tuesday 27 July to Sunday 1 August with six matches in successive days at Foote’s Lane.

The Jersey event, which will feature Manchester United and Celtic, follows on from it.