The Council of the Jersey Football Association have proposed and recommended the introduction of a Players Membership Scheme commencing from the beginning of next season.
This recommendation will be taken to the Club delegates at the Jersey Football Combination’s monthly meeting at the end of this month by Chairman Tim Darwin, who has been closely involved throughout the past 21 months whilst the scheme was researched.
Most recently Mr Darwin sat on a Jersey FA sub committee, who produced it’s final report on the scheme (see attachment) which was presented at last nights Council meeting. It is expected that Ricky Weir, Jersey FA President, Paul Creeden, Jersey FA Chief Executive and David Brookland Jersey FA Executive member and Treasurer will also attend the Combination Meeting.
Coca Cola Combination President Tim Darwin added “Having been involved since the idea was conceived, I am clearly supportive of the principal of a membership scheme and believe that this proposal is the right way forward for our sport locally, I believe that the benefits of membership, most importantly the Players Personal Accident Insurance, will convince the Coca Cola Jersey Football Combination Clubs to support this initiative when we meet at the end of March.
Jersey FA President, Ricky Weir said “This report concludes almost two years of fact finding and research since the idea of a membership scheme was first recommended in Advocate Steve Meiklejohn’s Working Party Report published in May 2006. A subsequent working group chaired by Mr Brian Ahier recommended a scheme that would have involved the Jersey FA effectively collecting a much higher sum from the players and then disbursing a proportion of that back to the Clubs, but we could not gain support for that element of the scheme from The FA.
The outcome and final recommendation we believe is a very fair one and should not have any adverse impact on individual Clubs to continue administering their own affairs and collecting subs from players in accordance with their Club policy.
We have worked extremely hard to provide a membership benefits package, significantly of which includes a Players Personal Accident Insurance. This insurance package together with a range of local company sponsored benefits, such as sports goods and petrol means that players taking full advantage of what’s being offered have the potential to recover part, all or even more than their membership fee by way of company discounts on offer.
In light of the financial deficit highlighted in the Jersey FA audited accounts of 2005 and 2006 we feel we have taken a balanced and fair approach to addressing this issue and which for senior players amounts to barely a £1 a day for the first month of the season.
We feel this is a small price to pay to have organized and affiliated football on the Island. We have also taken the opportunity in our report to highlight the important role that the Jersey FA play in supporting, administering and governing Island football for the benefit of all who participate not only players but coaches, referees, club committee members and spectators and are confident and hopeful that the Clubs will recognize this by giving the scheme their blessing at their meeting later this month.”
Jersey FA Executive member and Treasurer, David Brookland who was previously a Financial Advisor to Aldershot Town, formed in April 1992 to replace Aldershot FC , which went into liquidation in March 1992 and dropped out of the Football League, commented “ In the last three years the Jersey FA has lost between £22,000 & £30,000 per annum. The Jersey FA cannot continue to make losses and needs to find a regular source of income to make a consistent contribution to its financial position.
The Jersey FA operates in a similar way to County Associations in England and has broadly the same responsibilities and functions. The big difference is that County Associations receive affiliation fees from hundreds of clubs and fines from thousands of players providing their Associations with significant income. The Jersey FA can only receive income from a much smaller base of clubs and players. The membership scheme offers benefits to members and from a financial point of view will provide the JFA with the income it needs to stabilize its financial position and a platform to continue to provide and develop football for all players in Jersey.”