ON THE day the Track was confirmed as the venue for the 2009 Muratti Vase final, the biggest game in Channel Islands football lost its sponsor.

‘We’ve known for a couple of weeks that Cimandis weren’t going to renew their contract,’ said Guernsey Football Association Mark Le Tissier, who yesterday said it was symptomatic of the times and football needed to take it on the chin and get on with it.

But it’s not only the Muratti that is being hit.

The inter-island business is to end the support of the main Jersey leagues and the women’s inter-insular at the end of the current season as well as the Junior Muratti, which had one more year of a contract to run.

Jersey Football Association president Ricky Weir said: ‘Any loss of sponsorship is a tremendous disappointment because it is the lifeblood of grassroots football.

‘We thank Cimandis for their support and we fully understand their position in the current financial climate.

‘The Muratti is a blue riband event and life will go on. There are never guarantees that sponsorships will continue and we always hope that the contracts continue but eventually they all end at one time or another.

‘It’s the inter-insular football committee’s responsibility and Guernsey FA chairman Mark Le Tissier and myself, as rotating presidents, will discuss where we go from here.’

Le Tissier (pictured), who echoed Weir’s thanks to Cimandis, said that football, like many other sports, will have to adjust to the harsh new economic climate.