Island team's Kent bid is on hold

Island clubs are concerned the new side will take all their best players

Plans for a team from Guernsey to play in the Kent Premier League have been put back for at least a year due to the current economic crisis.

Guernsey Athletics, which had been formed by a group of former GFA executives, will now play in the island's top flight next season.

But chairman David Nussbaumer says the plan is still to aim for England.

"We won't be satisfied until we achieve what local football needs, a foot on the UK pyramid," he told BBC Guernsey.

"Playing in Division One and domestic cup competitions is merely a starter for us.

"It has been well charted that at the heart of the Athletics FC's competitive ambition is to play, as soon as possible, on the national league pyramid."

This is not an exercise in merely winning trophies at island level, but a serious sporting development project

Athletics chairman David Nussbaumer

The creation of the club caused a huge rift in island football last year with the side hiring the then island manager Steve Ogier to take over the team.

Many clubs in Guernsey were concerned that they would lose players to the new side with its more attractive fare of football off the island.

The club say they are still hoping to compete in next season's FA Vase and in friendlies against semi-professional sides both in England and Guernsey.

And Nussbaumer hopes that the aims of the club will attract the best players in the island to it.

"This is not an exercise in merely winning trophies at island level, but a serious sporting development project," he said.

"Guernsey footballers, particularly the younger ones, need to be exposed to a higher level of competition and we still intend to do that. Nothing will distract us from achieving that ambition."

The Athletics last played in Guernsey's top flight in 1963 but folded after financial mis-management. The club one won island title in 1923.