Soccer's woes mount as Skuse says he will go

FOOTBALL'S problems grow by the day. On the morning the Guernsey Football Association announced the resignation of their highly-respected leader, Dave Dorey, and impending departure of his deputy, Dave Nussbaumer, they were reminded that the man filling in for the vacant secretary is determined to go next month.

Graham Skuse has been acting as part-time adviser to the association since the departure of Matt Fallaize in early September, but yesterday reaffirmed that he was not prepared to continue indefinitely.

'I hope to stop being adviser to the GFA by Friday 16 December.

'I won't leave the GFA in the mire and I will still act as an adviser, but the GFA need somebody to fill that secretary's chair.

'I've done my share,' said Skuse, who is also the referees' officer.

'I started on 4 September and it will be two days short of 15 weeks when I go.'

Skuse said he was 'absolutely gutted' that Dorey had quit as president, 'as will be many other people in local football, CI football and beyond'.

'We've become one of the most respected counties in the country and that's down to Dave Dorey.'

Tony Blondel, a former GFA vice-president and once tipped as a future president, has consistently ruled himself out of contention for Dorey's job.

He said it was time for the remaining board members to sit down with senior club representatives, not council, to discuss the way forward.

'With losing a president, a senior vice-president, another vice-president, a secretary and a treasurer, the GFA are going to struggle to find replacements.'

Blondel, president of Vale Rec, called Dorey 'a massive loss'.

'He wasn't just a president and a secretary. He was everything.

'He was the brain, the historian. He will be impossible to replace.

'Dave had so much knowledge and experience. There was nothing he didn't have the answer to.'

Skuse also praised the work of Dorey's stand-in, who will continue to head the operation until a replacement is found at a special general meeting on Thursday 15 December.

'Dave Nussbaumer has done a great job,' said the GFA adviser.