Skip to main content

Guernsey's formula for island football

As the mainland football correspondent for Radio Scilly (where the local league has just two teams) I am always interested in news of island football.

The Non-League Paper this week featured that unusual island football team, Guernsey. The Green Lions were formed in 2011. They began life in the Combined Counties League and won back to back promotions to the Isthmian League where they seem to have found their level at Step 4 of the non-league system. The catalyst for starting a new club came when the island team won the FA National League Systems Cup in 2010 and got the chance to represent England in the Uefa Regions Cup.

Initially, a lot of local clubs were unhappy that their best players had left to play for the island team. (There are nine teams in the Priaulx League). The team has to travel by plane for away matches which usually involves an overnight stay. Four players work for a scaffolding company and only two can be taken on each away trip.

There is one player who is not local and he flies over from Bournemouth for each game with a local airline company footing the bill. The club has to pay for opponents to fly over and I would guess that it is the number of wealthy residents who like football that makes this possible.

The club is chaired by Mark Le Tissier, older brother of Matt who played for Southampton and England (he played some matches for Guernsey towards the end of their 2013 promotion winning season). They hope to build a brand new stadium and a development centre for the successful academy.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wolves get raw deal from FFP

  I used to see a lifelong Wolves fan for lunch once a month.   He was approaching ninety, but still went to games.   Sadly he passed away the other week. As football finance guru Kieran Maguire has noted, Wolves continue to be constrained by financial fair play rules.  Radio 4 this morning described them as this year's 'crisis club' and the pessimists have certainly been piling in. Martin Samuel wrote sympathetically in the Sunday Times yesterday, saying that the Premier League drives talent away with regulatory red tape: 'Why could Al-Hilal sign Neves? Because Wolves needed the money. And why did Wolves need the money? Because the club had to comply with an artificial construct known as financial fair play. So Wolves are going skint, yes? No. There is no suggestion that Wolves are in financial trouble, only that they are failing to meet the rigours of FFP. Wolves’ owners appear to have the money to run the club, and invest in the club, and in fact came up with a pow
Post a Comment
Read more

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day income is
Post a Comment
Read more

Charlton takeover approved

The long awaited takeover of Charlton Athletic by SE7 Partners from Thomas Sandgaard has been approved:  https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/se7-partners-obtain-efl-approval-for-charlton-athletic-takeover/ Charlton have had unhappy experiences with owners for over a decade, so how this works out will remain to be seen.  There is certainly potential there, but will it be realised? This interview with Charlie Methven gives detail not available elsewhere:  https://thecharltondossier.com/charlie-methven-on-the-record/
Post a Comment
Read more