North a hot tip for their 28th title

A NASTY black cloud hovers over domestic football on the eve of a new season. It leaves players, coaches and fans alike wondering what will fall from it when, not if, it bursts.

With the traditional season-opener, the Martinez Cup, three days away and the opening Cable & Wireless Priaulx League games next Saturday, there should be a buzz of excitement around the sport.

Weeks of pre-season preparation are just about to be put to the test.

But, as a leading club official said only yesterday: 'It's a mess'.

A special general meeting of the GFA council, due to be staged on Thursday, has been put back to next week.

'People just don't know where they are with anything,' said the same official, while sympathising with the situation the association executive finds itself in.

It should be a worry, too.

Were the GFA to lose its president, so much fantastic work could start to unravel.

In recent years, and so much of it is down to Dave Dorey, the island's biggest and most followed sport has earned great respect among officialdom and sponsors.

Football needs money, it needs sponsors.

But sponsors do not like uncertainty, they certainly do not like controversy.

Also, they do not want to be involved in a sport which does not know which way it is heading and why.

Everybody inside and on the fringes of the game wants a swift end to this uncertainty and normality to resume, but in the meantime there are cups and leagues to be fought for.

Put your money on North to win the bulk of them.

There may be signs that all is not well behind the scenes after the departures of key men Geoff Tardif and Gary Cortez, but in terms of playing personnel, the chocolate-and-blues remain very strong.

This surely is the year North land the Priaulx League title for a 28th time and end their 13-season wait for it to return to the Northfield trophy cabinet.

The squad has depth, class and a good coach, so who can stop them?

Well, it will not be Sylvans.

Their reign is now at an end and it will take a period of solid development of the sort which got them to the top in the first place to restore them to the top position.

I wish them luck. Apart from a couple of years when it all went to their heads, Sylvans' spell as the number one force has been good for the game.

They achieved it largely through youth development and, if they lift the crown as most people expect they will, so too will North.

Phil Corbet's tasty mix of youth and experience will be too much for the rest.

That is not to say that the likes of Bels, St Martin's and Vale Rec should be discounted before the first yellow card is shown.

Bels will be one of two things - exciting challengers or big disappointments.

That's the way the club has always been.

Not so many years ago this same scribe tipped the blue-and-whites to win the title and the berks finished bottom.