President to leave office early

ALEC LE NOURY'S 19-year tenure as GFA president is to end six weeks early. Le Noury has called an EGM with council's backing to ensure a smoother exchange with only the 17th president in the 110-year history of the association and the introduction of a new paid officer to replace Mark Le Tissier.

The annual meeting is scheduled for mid-July but Le Noury is adamant it will be better for all concerned if a new president is in place as soon as possible after the end of the current season.

'Mark Le Tissier goes on the last day of May.

'I felt it would not be right for the new secretary to work for a president for five or six weeks and then in mid July at the AGM a new president comes in and he will have to start learning to work with a new man.

'Because of that I put it to council that it would give the new president and secretary a better chance if we did it this way and it would give them a two-and-a-half-month run-in to the new season.'

Le Noury said that the EGM would be called to elect a president only and whoever was elected would be in office through to the AGM of 2005.

Nominations for the presidency close on Thursday 3 June and at the time of writing only one has been received, with Vale Rec giving their support to Dave Dorey, the clear favourite for the job.

But one man the new president will not have working alongside him is current junior vice-president, Steve Harvey.

He is not to seek re-election.