World Cup will help promote inter insular women's league

Sunday 07 July 2019

It's hoped that the success of the Women's World Cup this year will see a new inter insular women's league take off in Guernsey and Jersey, thanks to sponsorship from Condor.

Various teams from both islands will now be able to play each other at the sport, something which hasn't been possible for a while.

Although England failed to secure a place in the final, losing against the USA on Tuesday night in the international competition, the team's performance could have come at a good time as local teams are given a new opportunity to play against each other. 

The newly named Condor Ferries Women's Channel Islands League, which had an experimental run last year in Jersey, will see one new team involved in 2019/20  (Guernsey Ladies FC) and for the first time matches will be played in both islands, with all six teams playing each other home and away. 

Sponsorship will come from Condor Ferries, who will be helping with inter-island travel arrangements for the teams involved. Both the Guernsey and Jersey Football Associations say the development of the competition is a significant step in the progress of the women’s game in both islands. 

“On the back of a hugely successful Women’s World Cup, we hope local players will embrace this expanded new inter-insular competition," said Jersey Football Association CEO Jean-Luc Desbois. "We’re pleased to be working closely with our colleagues in Guernsey to offer Channel Islands’ women the opportunity to test themselves against different opposition.

“The Condor Ferries Women’s Channel Islands League is an exciting new innovation and is part of our wider strategic plan to modernise Jersey football.” 

Anna Gauvain from North Ladies FC added: "We were hoping it would progress after our involvement in Jersey last year. We hope that people will join both the local teams to make them bigger and more competitive. The GFA are starting to put time into primary schools and secondary schools and those girls will feed through to the league.

"We are pretty confident that we will compete and we'll see how it goes." 

The former local women's football league managed to drum up a good following at the time, and it is hoped many of the spectators will return to the stands to support their teams.

Guernsey FA Director James Falla said: “We and the Jersey Football Association have had an ambition to work together on a Channel Islands domestic structure for women for the past three years. It has taken longer than we would have hoped to reach this stage, but we look forward to seeing this competition develop and flourish over the next few years.

“The GFA is delighted to have secured significant support for the league from Condor Ferries. The cost of travel could be prohibitive for a pan-island set up, but Condor’s backing makes it much easier to get the league started, and then hopefully to grow. We thank them for their enthusiasm for the project.” 

Paul Luxon, CEO at Condor Ferries, said:

“We are pleased to provide backing for the Women’s Channel Islands League through our newly-established Community Fund, and this is part of our ongoing commitment to improve inter-island links for sport and other events.” 

Pictured: Ravenscroft Player Development Centre.

The six teams involved in the Condor Ferries Women’s Channel Islands League will be Guernsey Ladies FC and North Ladies (who were last season’s winners as Ormer Ladies) from Guernsey, and JTC Jersey Wanderers, St Lawrence, Rozel Rovers and Grouville from Jersey. 

The season is expected to begin on 1 September, with the first round of inter-island matches primarily played between then and mid-October. 

Both the Guernsey FA and Jersey FA offer significant support and opportunities for girls’ and women’s football in the islands, and look forward to seeing an increase in participation following England’s strong showing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.