The Guernsey Football Association withdrew both entries after the draw was made for the last Games in Orkney in 2025, citing travel and accommodation challenges, but the GFA have confirmed that their men will be involved this time.
‘It’s important to us because representative football is still the highlight for football in Guernsey,’ said chief executive Gary Roberts.
‘Ultimately we went out to the management team and to the players themselves to try to gauge how much interest there was in going to the Island Games.
‘Obviously we were disappointed not to be able to go for several reasons to the Orkney Games a couple of years back, but now with the players committed and the management team committed, it made sense that we would take that leap and put ourselves in the hat to go the Faroes next year,’ he added.
And Roberts said the destination – and the football stature of the host island – has been a significant motivating factor for manager Dave Merris and his players.
The Faroe Islands compete in international football and have been ranked as high as 74th in the world in 2016. They beat the Czech Republic last year as they finished third in their World Cup qualifying group with four wins from eight.
And while they have not competed in the Island Games football since 1991, having won gold at the first two Games, the football finals and opening ceremony next year will be held at their 5000-capacity Torsvollur national stadium.
‘That was probably one of the carrots for the players is getting to go to the Faroes,’ said Roberts.
‘They’ve obviously done their own homework and looked at the facilities out there from a football perspective, so I think it was definitely one of the things that attracted the players to put themselves forward for these Games.
‘One of the conditions to go is that we were going to take a squad that was strong enough to do ourselves justice, so pretty much the majority of the senior players and some of those young up-and-coming players are all committed to it.
‘So whatever that final squad is that we end up taking, I’m pretty sure that we will do ourselves justice.’
Guernsey are three-times gold medallists, having last topped the podium in Jersey in 2015, but were knocked out in the group stages when they last competed in the home Games of 2023.
But while the men will already be looking forward to making amends next summer, the Island women will not have the chance to bid for a first-ever medal.
‘As an association, we were keen that both teams go and we went through the same process with the women’s team, with their management and the players,’ said Roberts.
‘Unfortunately for various reasons there wasn’t enough players who at the time when we needed to make that decision were able to commit, so we wouldn’t have had a strong enough squad to take to do ourselves justice.’
Island women’s team manager Anna Gauvain emphasised, though, that they are ‘definitely not ruling out future Games’.
‘It’s just fallen in a year when some of our squad have other commitments with work and family, some have moved to the UK, so not knowing what their schedule looks like was a doubt for us,’ she said.
‘We wanted to attend with a strong squad which we were unable to get together in advance of committing to it for next July.
‘We will have had the first two seasons in a full league programme with the Cherry Godfrey Cup in the middle. [It] was just one thing too much this time round.’
The Faroe Islands 2027 Island Games take place from 3-9 July.
