"On Thursday 2nd March the Guernsey Football Association's Council decided against sending the senior mens team to the 2007 Island Games in Rhodes," said a release from the GFA.

"After a detailed and thorough discussion during which views on both sides were put forward, this proposal was ultimately rejected by Council over concerns about health, safety and security. This decision by Council applies to both the mens and womens teams," it continued.

This overturned an earlier decision by Guernsey Football to send teams to the 2007 Island Games in Rhodes.

Two teams last met in 2003, when the Games were held in Guernsey, the match between Guernsey and Rhodes was abandoned after the Rhodes team had a fifth player sent off. This followed several dangerous tackles by the Rhodes team and their manager also being sent off.

2 Guernsey players on the deck in 2003.

Speaking in 2003 the Rhodes Director, Takis Mihailidis said the fact the six players sent off were sent home and banned for life from the Island Games is proof of Rhodes respect for the event.

Following this announcement by the GFA the Guernsey Island Games Association (GIGA) Vice Chairman, Peter Dean, said:

"The Guernsey Island Games Association is disappointed that the Guernsey Football Association Council has overturned the original decision of Guernsey Football to participate in the Island Games in Rhodes 2007.

"Whilst we will be discussing their decision with Football, we must however stress that this is a decision that can only be made by Football.

"We would hope that Football will take the time to reflect on their decision in the coming weeks and months and find it possible to reverse their decision and join the rest of the Guernsey Team in Rhodes in 2007."

"These are the friendly Games and we hope they remain so," Mr Dean added.

Guernsey Manager Steve Ogier said he along with the coaching staff and the players were devastated by the decision.

Mr Ogier was at the earlier meeting of the Board when the GFA sanctioned the trip and he had thought it was all done and dusted.

He understands their fears and that the health and security of the players and staff was paramount but that it was based on an assumption based on past history.

Mr Ogier would have liked to have seen the decision deferred until the Committee has visited Rhodes and looked at issues such as security.

In a recent poll only one out of 20 squad players questioned did not want to go to Rhodes and this was due to other commitments.

Mr Ogier suggested that the decision has been taken very early and that perhaps the Council had "jumped the gun".

Tony Vance, a player in the 2003 Guernsey/Rhodes clash and now Assistant Coach for the Guernsey team, agreed with Steve Ogier: "The Island Games is a fantastic Tournament and what happened in Guernsey with the Rhodes thing is in the past now and I just wish everyone could just move on."

GFA Director Steve Dewsnip answered the questions put to him by our reporter Simon Fairclough.

When asked if the decision could be changed Mr Dewsnip said while you can never says never the council spent a lot of time looking into all the sides of the argument before reaching their decision and new information would have to become available for them to reconsider.

On the decision being made early he said it was a balance between making a decision sufficiently early and waiting until last possible moments. Members of the council felt they had all the necessary facts at their disposal.

One thing Mr Dewsnip was sure of was that the GFA would continue to offer it's players as many opportunities to play high level off island matches.

If the island's footballers to do not go to the Island Games then they are determined that the senior opportunities will still be there for players by entering alternative competition.