ISLAND FUN AND GAMES

SAM TODD GIVES US HIS TAKE ON THE LATEST CHAPTER OF THE LONG AWAITED ISLAND GAMES

- SAM TODD

IF, LIKE Arsene Wenger, you think four years is too long to wait for an international tournament, then spare a thought for Island Games players and officials.

Football has been played at the biennial multi-sport event since 1989, but the beautiful game's omission from the Gibraltar 2019 programme due to a lack of suitable pitches and the postponement of the 2021 edition in response to coronavirus made Guernsey 2023 the first official tournament in six years for footballing island nations, territories and dependencies.

This year's competition was also the last to be sponsored by NatWest, who have covered the costs since 1999, although organisers seemed confident enough about the future to announce the Faroe Islands as preferred hosts after Orkney (2025), Ynys Mon (2027) and the Isle of Man (2029).

That announcement before the week-long event closed on July 14 was reassuring, because this is the only chance for a lot of these communities to compete in sport and it would have been sad if it were to end forever.

I volunteered as a results entry assistant at the 2011 Island Games football on the Isle of Wight and, in terms of commitment, competitiveness and camaraderie, there aren't many better events to watch or be part of, particularly when teams could be playing up to five fixtures in six days.

Those 2011 games culminated in the men's final, where the Isle of Wight enjoyed a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Guernsey after extra-time. In 2023 the pair met again, this time in the group stage and with Guernsey as host island.

Both sides won their opening two matches, but only winners from each of the four groups of four teams progressed and that favoured Guernsey, whose superior goal difference meant they only needed a draw in front of around 3,000 fans.