Sport / Three league structure far better for referees, football president says
SHETLAND’S referees would have struggled to do another season in a two league format, football association president Jakob Eunson has said.
The senior football leagues are to be split in three for the upcoming season after a majority of clubs voted through the proposal at a meeting last week.
The A league will feature the same seven sides as it did last season, with the reserve league now including the second string teams of each of those clubs – and Delting, for an eight team division.
A newly formed “independent” league will feature six clubs – Banks, Bressay Sharks, North Isles, Ness ‘C’, Westside Rebels and new team Southside Impact.
Eunson said it had become clear after discussions with referees that the previous format – including a 12-team reserve league – would have been very difficult to do with a small pool of refs.
And he said clubs realised “there’s something needing to be changed” after being told of the strain being put on referees.
One of the issues, Eunson said, was that new referees were often not comfortable being thrust into A league games straight away.
Three or four referees currently also play football, mostly in the reserve league, which meant they were usually not allowed to referee games in their own division.
The new set-up will allow those player-refs to take charge of games in the new independent league.
Eunson said he was “pretty delighted” to see the new format waved through after months of deliberation.
“Last year was really tough for our referees,” the president said.
“They said to us, ‘we don’t think we can manage another season like it was with the number of games’.
“So this change is really helping out those refs, especially given the reduced number of them.”
Eunson said the association led its discussions with clubs by explaining how it would benefit their referees.
Some clubs were still against the proposal, with reserve league champions Whitedale one of those to voice their opposition.
But one-team clubs such as Banks were in favour of the move back to something akin to a works league, with Eunson saying some clubs were “not wanting to play such a wide range of teams”.
“They were wanting maybe more consistency in who they might be playing,” he added.
“I think this is the right step for Shetland football at the moment, especially looking at a referee’s view of it.
“It’s going to create more flexibility and take a lot of the pressure off, which can only be a good thing when we’re short of refs.”
Shetland Football Association is now drawing up a list of potential fixtures for the upcoming season, with the annual curtain-raising competition – the Highland Fuels Cup – likely to start in Whalsay next month, Eunson said.
Shetland’s footballers will also host their county rivals Orkney a week after the Island Games come to an end, Eunson confirmed.
The inter-county clash between the two sides will take place on the traditional date in the last weekend of July, which comes a week after Orkney’s hosting of the 2025 Island Games comes to a close.
The reds will travel north to meet Shetland in Lerwick on Saturday 26 July, looking to end Shetland’s three-year winning streak in the Milne Cup fixture.
Eunson said Shetland were all booked and ready to go to the Orkney games in July, with coach Neil Fenwick and his squad continuing to prepare – and fundraise – for the week-long event.
Shetland’s group for the tournament has been a revolving door of islands, with the blues finally confirmed to be in a three-team group including Jersey and Gozo.
Guernsey, Åland and the Falkland Islands have all been in the group at one point, but all three islands withdrew from the men’s football tournament.
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