Golden silence spoiled

Saturday 8th March 2008, 9:28AM GMT.

THE silence should have seemed golden to the ears of the GFA board.

As Monday’s open forum drifted towards full-time, Dave Nussbaumer, their chairman, had reopened the debate on the board’s proposed ‘championship’ division to replace the Jackson and Youth One leagues with a simple question.

The tone of his query was along the lines of, ‘Were it a 17-23 league, would you be happier?’ A few hands went up in support and none, that I could see anyway, was against.

That moment of silence should be all the GFA need to press on with the most radical point of their five-year plan and, as a board, they should have come away from the forum feeling very satisfied with their evening’s work. It was, as you might say, all quiet on the night. Then, 12 hours later, the Nussbaumer bombshell.