Bad advice could land stars in trouble
Wednesday 9th June 2010, 2:30PM BST.
Craig Young (11) moves into space with Manzur team-mate Gareth Holden on the ball at Fort Regent. (Picture by David Ferguson, 0980819)
WHAT they considered a harmless bit of five-a-side football fun may just have landed some top footballers in bother with the GFA.
After perhaps being badly advised, some of the island’s leading footballers, including at least one 2010 Muratti winner, played in unaffiliated indoor competitions.
Craig Young, the Bels star who came on as a sub in the Muratti win last month, was caught on camera playing for Manzur in the CI five-a-side finals at Fort Regent on Saturday.
Fellow Division One stars Simon Marley, also of Bels, and Vale Rec’s leading scorer Gareth Holden, were also playing in Manzur colours at the event, while it is understood that several Division One players including one other Muratti player, North’s Olly McKenzie, played in the local end of season FRM Five-a-Side Champions League competition.
But while Young and others may have regarded it simply as a bit of out-of-season and legal football fun, it seems they are in breach of the GFA’s rules, which prevent affiliated players from turning out in unaffiliated football regardless of whether the local season had come to an end.
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The jersey 5 a-side is affiliated to the JFA. The tournament was held in Jersey and organised by their league. Therefore it sounds as though this was an affiliated tournament. No?
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This really is quite remarkable. Why are these rules there in the first place? Surely we are all free to enjoy whatever amateur sport we like when we like.
I emphasise that this is amateur sport, this sort of bureaucracy could be expected for professional sports men and women but not at amateur level.
Do the rules also stop affiliated players from playing other sport (tennis, hockey, karate) or is it just football? If not, why not? Sounds to me like the FA/GFA are trying to run a monopoly on football.
I understand why a player can only play for one team, but I don’t understand how this is acceptable?
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They were representing the Guernsey indoor league so no, I dont think they were affiliated and covered to play. Plus that doesnt explain GFA players presence in the Cup Knockout Competition or the Champions League competition.
Im not bothered one way or the other about the GFA rules or whether they should be allowed to play or not. However, it is unfair, if when GFA say no, they do anyway, it affects all the teams in the league who have played the same squad all season to turn up and play aload of ringers, not to mention the fact what if a leg was broken on one of these “European Cup” stars. These blokes dont do themselves any favours when they stand on the balcony during the 5-a-side matches bragging about their Muratti Medals, National Systems Cup Medals and European Finals to play in, if only their brains were as quick as their feet!
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Its sucha pathetic rule…..why if i want to go and play football can some self important guy say no! Its a free country.
I personally love 5 aside but can’t play now, yet i can sit on the bench not playing football for weeks in the GFA.
Its an amateur sport to be enjoyed so unless someones safety is at risk but out GFA! Its the whole GFA obsession with raising the level of Guernsey football that gets me. Their aim should be to make sure as many people enjoy the game and play as possible.
I really am fed up with the GFA thinking 1) we’ll churn out a load of pros because by ‘raising the local game’ we won’t unless they are already exceptionally gifted or 2) that getting 15 core people a regular game in the UK is good if it means the other hundreds of players are worse off.
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I don’t agree with these rules at all, it’s amateur sport, you’re not being paid £100k a week to turn out for Vale Rec.
That said, although I don’t agree I can see the logic whilst the season is on but restricting people from enjoying themselves in their free time outside the season really is ridiculous.
The GFA need to pull their heads out of their backside and accept that this is amateur sport, not the Premier League.
Auntie GP – I don’t mind people being proud to represent the island – it’s an honour. Speaking as a carthorse who loves playing 5-a-side though, if I were standing on the balcony listening to some arrogant twit who thinks he’s Messi mouthing off about playing in the Muratti I would laugh my butt off. They’re nothing but very small fish in an even smaller pond…..
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@Auntie GP – I would add to my previous comment that a good mate of mine played in a winning Muratti side and I’ve never heard him brag about it. Thankfully not everyone is like the people you heard….
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Paul, I appreciate what your saying that not all are like that – sadly of the current crop of “stars” alot of them are like that. Like you, i enjoyed a good laugh at their own self-importance, and even more of a laugh when I skinned them down the wing and pulled off a megs, unbelievable tekkers!
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I really can’t understand why there is such a massive problem with them playing 5 a-side. The season is over regards to Division 1, Muratti’s etc. From what i can see, these players have been told that it would be ok to play, as long as they notified there respective clubs that they would end up being de-registered & would therefore have to sign on again in the summer. What harm are they doing by playing at the end of the season when they have no GFA games left?? I saw in the paper that they could end up being banned for a certain amount of time next season. These players have only played in a 5 a-side tournament at the end of the GFA season, thats all. It’s not as if they have been playing week in, week out whilst still playing in the GFA leagues like the player who was banned earlier in the year was doing! The GFA need to understand that local football is a hobbie and not a career, these players don’t exactly get paid!!
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Why on earth is 5-a-side football affiliated anyway to the GFA ? Why does it need to be ? Why can’t it be treated for what it is, a separate game altogether ? If it wasn’t affiliated then players could simply choose to play 5-a-side football as an extra hobby, in the same way that they might want to play rugby or cricket in their spare time. I understand the rationale for the argument that the Business House and Sunday Soccer Leagues should be affiliated as its exactly the same game being played.
Does the RFU regulate Touch Rugby ? Does the GCA regulate Indoor Cricket ? They are different formats of the broader game altogether and there is no logical need to have them formally affiliated. The problems all then disappear !
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Given what you say about bragging and that there was only one island player playing i guess we can all tell who it is bragging about their achievements!
I do find it funny on the subgect of the NLS cup that it is not achnowledged that virtually every decent player in the UK has been paid at some point to play some kind of football even if its £10 a game to cover costs and as such most people can’t play in the comp!
Says something that both us and Jersey struggle in County Cups yet this tournament both should have comfortably made the final (if not for some poor Jersey finishing).
Bascically i’ve gone a bit extreme with my point there but they shouldn’t be stood on a 5 aside pitch think they are a ‘star’
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beep beep – your first post is spot on mate.
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Smudger – the point is that the indoor league is not affiliated by the GFA, neither is sunday league or business league. Because these less competitve more hobby based leagues refused to conform with the heavy hand of the law the GFA laid down a couple of years ago, they decided to become “renegade” to quote the press and not be affiliated. Because of this, the GFA banned any GFA registered player from playing in non-affiliated leagues, madness, utter madness. I disagree with the rule, but i dont condone players breaking it, and my point about the bragging was that if someone has grassed these GFA players up, maybe they (the GFA player) should think about why someone would do that, does it have something to do with the over inflated ego-tistical behaviour?
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Auntie GP
Sorry, you miss my point. A non-affiliated league of the same sport is a potential problem, but if 5-a-side is properly recognised for what its is, namely a separate sport altogether (played indoors, 5 players not 11, no linesmen, use of walls, ball height restriction, no offsides etc), then there is no need to treat it as a “rogue” league. A registered GFA footballer should be freely permitted to play a different sport. If treated as a different sport, then he should be as free to play 5-a-side football as he is to play basketball or volleyball, which would be of no interest whatsoever to the GFA.
The “proper” form of outdoor football leagues (Business House League and Sunday Soccer League) are a different issue altogether as its exactly the same sport and so its logical that the GFA should be the overall governing body, or alternatively those leagues need to be regarded as non-affiliated, as indeed they are now.
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Why does the Guernsey Press insist on referring to local footballers as ‘stars’. They are nothing more than keen amateur players. To refer to them in the same way as the real football stars currently playing in the world cup is a joke.
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Quite simply this sounds like jealousy to me. I play in the local 5 a side leagues and unfortunately I am pretty rubbish so never really have expectations of winning anything.
I suggest the person(s) starting this whole witch hunt was perhaps in the team that lost to the better players and have thrown their toys out of the pram.
Our Guernsey players have made a fantastic contribution to the profile of football with their recent achievement in the NLS Cup and quite frankly I am bemused and disgusted to say the least at the way in which a few of our island players have been spoken about. I imagine if every player for every 5-a-side team put in anywhere near the amount of effort through training as these players do then they would not feel so hard done by when they get beaten by the better team – and may even win the game!
As for the comments about the island player bragging about their achievements… why not? The whole island should be bragging about our football teams’ achievement – shouldn’t they?
In any case, I think most people have enough intelligence to appreciate how gossip works… someone probably congratulated him (the island player) – to which he may have thanked them… a player of the losing team heard them… comments get taken out of context (through anger, spite, confusion or ignorance) and before you know it I have wasted 5 minutes of my life writing on here to support someone I don’t even know, purely on the grounds that we should be proud of our players and get behind them fully.
As for the GFA – they have rules, that’s up to them to figure out whether any action should be taken but I would expect them to treat this whole matter within the correct context as it seams to me that a few GFA players (not only island players) have merely taken bad counsel which has resulted in no harm done to anyone except a few sore losers perhaps.
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I don’t know blogger, I reckon I’d have Le Tissier in goal before Green! ;-)
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totally agree the star part gets so many people noses out of joint. For Rob Batiste to suggest players over here, whilst very good amateurs, could compete at the highest level is a farce. In fact i think that sometimes the most talented players get unrecognised whilst playing at Guernsey level football. Ross Allen as an examplewould get quickly found out in the UK as someone who is just head down and dribble. A higher level team wouldn’t stand for it and most Priaulx strikers would score at hatfull if they took 20 shots a game. If a footballer were really a star they would be replicating the likes of Andy Priaulx etc who compete and win at international level. To be fair its not the players fault its the likes of of certain columnists who insist on calling them that. It made me laugh when a clear Dale Garland cross that went in in the FA Cup final was put along side the likes of Van Basten…come on press reporters sort it out
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@Hedgehog – I agree that we should be proud of our island players and that there’s nothing wrong with being proud of one’s achievements, I said so in my first post.
However there is a difference between a sincere pride in one’s achievements and the kind of condescending arrogance that gets up people’s noses. Like you I have played in the 5-a-side leagues (albeit a while ago) and I’ve come across both kinds in my time.
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beep beep
Have the Rangers stars got under your skin somehow?
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haha simon there you go using that star word again!
no definately not from a problem with the rangers lads, what i’ve met of Ross Allen he’s a lovely lad! My issue as it seems with a few people on here is the press building some people up far to much. I’m good mates with a number of rangers lads and they even get frustrated with it.
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Paul: Yes of course there is a difference, I quite agree. I merely wanted to put a different spin on the argument to balance things up a bit.
As neither of us were there I guess we can not know who said what and how it was said but important always to remember there are two sides to every story.
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