Sunday Soccer League cup action at Northfield, a ground no longer available to the social leagues following their de-affiliation from the GFA. However, the umbrella body have made it a priority to persuade the ‘rebels’ to re-affiliate for next season. (0186254)

THE Guernsey Football Association want to bring the ‘social leagues’ back under their umbrella and ease them into buying into their plan for the game.

Last summer saw the Business and Sunday Soccer Leagues acrimoniously split from the island’s football governing body following the launch of the GFA’s four-year plan.

The GFA county secretary, Neil Laine, has recently completed a review of the plan’s first six months and said yesterday that the GFA wanted the two leagues back.

‘We should have governance over all football in Guernsey. How we get to that? I don’t know.

‘I’d like to get back to where they are affiliated, even if they run themselves independently. The first step is to try to get them to affiliate and then see if there is a way forward.

‘I still believe we’ve not got our message over to these clubs.’

The main reason behind the split was the ‘one-man, one-club’ ruling contained in the four-year plan.

The social leagues argued that saying yes to that would have effectively wrecked their leagues.