'Momentous day for local football' as Victoria Avenue project finally begins
Work starts this week on building a new home for Guernsey football at Victoria Avenue.
New headquarters for the Guernsey Football Association will back on to a new 3G pitch on the field, next door to the Track, the historic base of the sport from the latter days of the 19th century.
The site, which the GFA has rented from the States for the past five years, has now been privately purchased and has been long-leased to the association.
The £10m. project is going ahead with significant support from the English Football Association and its grant-funding partner the Football Foundation.
The GFA hopes that the 2025 Muratti final will be one of the first games played at the new stadium.
‘This is a momentous day for local football and the culmination of years of hard work,’ said GFA chief executive Gary Roberts.
‘This will be the GFA’s first permanent home since it was founded in 1893 but, more importantly, this is a project for Guernsey football.
‘Football has more than 2,000 active participants on a weekly basis in Guernsey, so we’ve made it an absolute priority that the site will be accessible, inclusive and affordable for the whole community. It will give us top-quality facilities for football at all levels, from those who play casually with friends, to youth-level football, all the way through to Guernsey FC and representative football.’
The development will include a floodlit 3G pitch with 400 seats and covered terracing behind each goal, a grass pitch for 9-a-side matches and training, a clubhouse with bar and kitchen, and a changing room block.
The offices on site will become the Guernsey FA headquarters.
The £10m. cost of the project is being funded by a £1.175m grant from the Football Foundation – a charity partnership between the Premier League, the Football Association and the UK Government – and private donations. Additional funding has come from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, and a £250,000 HQ grant from the Football Association.
The new facility will be available to all of the footballing community in the island, with the opportunity available to host training and matches for clubs, small-sided opportunities, recreational football and cup finals, as part of the GFA’s usage plan for the site. Guernsey FC will also play home matches at Victoria Avenue.
‘We want the site to have multiple users, not just football clubs. We’d like it to be used by community groups as much as possible, and to see this facility become the heart of this area.
‘We want to work with everyone, want the facility to be used by everyone, and want everyone to feel like this is a home for football,’ said Mr Roberts.
The GFA has been planning to develop its own home for the past eight years, and it was originally intended that the site would have been completed in time for the Island Games.
The project was poised to begin before being derailed by Covid.
