The Political Economy of Football V2

Victoria Park Guernsey FC are facing a relegation battle from the Isthmian League, but they have been able to move into their own purpose built stadium.  The Footes Lane ground was shared with rugby and athletics which affected the condition of the pitch. They will also be able to play and train on the same pitch at Victoria Park and generate their own revenue. The Green Lions have been playing for 12 years. Many of their original players have now aged and they are more reliant on younger players.  They have to subsidise the travel costs of visiting teams. Their model of playing in the non-league pyramid has been adopted by the Jersey Bulls and an Isle of Man team.  Newport (Isle of Wight) are a long established side but are now ground sharing at East Cowes as their ground is redeveloped. Much interest in the Channel Islands focuses on the Murrati Shield and Jersey beat Alderney 2-0 last week at the Arsenal Stadium.   Only two of the Alderney players came from t...

Island football has always been difficult except for islands that are close to the mainland with decent transport links, think the Isle of Wight, although teams there have had their challenges. Guernsey pioneered the idea of having a consolidated team, the Green Lions, playing in the English non-league system, an idea taken up by Jersey, not that they would see it that way given inter-island rivalries. The Isle of Man was also planning to enter the English non-league pyramid. Now the Jersey Bulls have not only seen their 100 per cent record in the Combined Counties League wiped out, they also face increased travel costs to the mainland (including those for away teams) and a loss of the crowd revenue from an average attendance of 700:  https://jerseyeveningpost.com/sport/football/2020/06/04/bulls-chairman-we-will-not-sit-out-next-season/ Alderney are one of my favourite island teams as they mimic the Isle of Wight in making it possible to travel to a game on an old London Undergrond...

Providing a reasonable standard of football on the islands around Britain is always a challenge. Jersey Bulls made their debut in the English non-league pyramid season last Saturday. A crowd of over 1,100 saw them beat Ash United three nil in their first ever Combined Counties League Division One game. On Wednesday they had to make a two hundred mile journey to West London to play FC Deportivo Gallicia in an evening game under the lights. Bulls boss Gary Freeman said that a couple of players were not able to make it because of work commitments. He said, ‘We will need to be at the airport at midday on Wednesday so we are hoping the players will have some rather forgiving bosses at work. I am sure that we will soon get sick of the sight of airports. I have been looking at our schedule over the next few weeks and they certainly haven’t made it easy for us. It will tough at times, the players are used to playing an eleven game season in the local league.’ Nevertheless, the ai...