Guernsey Press

Football bigger than GFC/GFA

YOU quoted Guernsey FC’s coach Tony Vance as saying that his club’s avoidance of relegation saved them and Guernsey football £50,000. I understand that had the club dropped down a division, the grant for the new GFA and Guernsey FC headquarters and stadium in Victoria Avenue from the FA would have dropped from £150,000 to £100,000. (Presumably this was made clear before planning permission for the complex was given, which was well before the outcome of the relegation battle was known.)

Published

What I don’t understand is how the avoidance of relegation saved ‘Guernsey football’ £50,000. Surely it saved Guernsey FC and the Guernsey FA £50,000. The difference between these two is becoming increasingly hard to see. It is the GFLM, a separate LBG, which runs the domestic competitions and therefore oversees the overwhelming majority of football matches played in Guernsey. It would be worrying and unfair if the clubs who play in these competitions had to fork out as a consequence of Guernsey FC’s failures in a foreign league. (Would the grant have been larger if Guernsey FC had been promoted more often?)

Meanwhile, it would be a shame if Alderney were not in the Priaulx next season, but given the travel costs, I can understand the other clubs’ concerns. While the FA has granted £150k to Guernsey football’s elite for a plush home base, I’d have thought that if they and the GFA were interested in supporting grass-roots community football, a grant to cover travel costs in Guernsey’s domestic competitions would be at least as appropriate. How that would work I’m not sure; there seems to be a strange situation in Alderney, which has a national team (as distinct from the club which plays in the Priaulx) which enters the Muratti Vase yet there is, as far as I can ascertain, no evidence of the existence of an Alderney FA. http://www.alderneyfa.com/ is by its own admission an ‘unofficial site’ and provides no information about its function or any individuals involved, and appears not to have been updated since 2013.

MATT WATERMAN

Flat 2,

3 Burnt Lane,

St Peter Port.