Island Games accommodation pressures could lead to footballers staying at home

Wednesday 12 June 2024

Accommodation pressures are starting to bite on next year’s Orkney Island Games.

Organisers have announced that the football tournament will have fewer teams than it had hoped, leaving the potential that some top sides could miss out as a result.

For Guernsey 2023, three men's teams - Alderney, Hitra and Western Isles - missed out on initial places in the 16 team competition after names were drawn, although a spot was later found for Western Isles after someone else withdrew.

For Orkney plans are currently in place for having just 12 mens and 12 women’s teams.

"It's always been our aspiration to have 16 and 16," Beccy May, vice-chair of Orkney 2025, told the BBC.

"It may be that we have significant progress in terms of our accommodation and accommodation providers on the island and we might be able to elevate the number of teams participating in football to more than 12 and 12.

"But I think we need to make a firm decision at this point, before the year-to-go event, so that our member islands understand what we're aiming for now. That doesn't necessarily mean that won't change in the future.

"We just need to have certainty. We would hate to find ourselves in a position where we were making promises to have 16 and 16 and we wouldn't be able to accommodate those teams because of the issues we've got around accommodation."

Hosts Orkney, last year’s winners Jersey, Alderney, Hitra and the Faroe Islands are all guaranteed a spot.

But the likes of Guernsey, Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight could all miss out, as could Orkney’s main rivals Shetland.

Pictured top: Guernsey and Western Isles in the 2023 Island Games.