Football association appeals for help to run committee
Shetland Football Association could be facing a crunch annual general meeting next month with the presidency up for re-election following the decision of Magnus Flaws to stand down.
Secretary Brydon Robertson also resigned in June and it is understood that there will be more resignations at the meeting.
Flaws told The Shetland Times that the decision to postpone the meeting, which was originally due to be held yesterday, until 20th October, was purely to allow time for medals to be purchased for issue to the inter-county players. He dismissed suggestions that next season’s football programme could be imperilled owing to a lack of committee members.
Instead he appealed for a strong turnout at the annual meeting and called for the clubs to do their part and provide candidates to take up any vacant offices.
He said that ex-footballers and those who had taken great enjoyment from the game had a duty to take on an administrative role to ensure that youngsters coming through had a future to look forward to.
Flaws said: “As long as the bulk of the committee is formed the rest can follow up. We are needing the clubs and their members step forward and attend the AGM.
“It’s up to the clubs, the players and the ex-players. Why not give something back? Because they reaped the benefits of playing fitba. They are promoting fitba in Shetland and its also to help the youngsters coming through. There has to be a senior league for them to play in.
“For a season to be started and completed there has to be a committee, but folk realise that, and if there was a failure to appoint a committee, they would soon realise that there would have to be a committee.”
He added that if it had not been for three or four stalwarts this year there would have been no season, but it had gone ahead with half a committee. An emergency general meeting had to be called last year following failure to fill all the committee positions at the AGM and that had been “not unusual”.
Flaws, who has been president since the island games in 2005, said that he had “done his time and had had a fair crack of the whip” and it was time for a change in leadership. He said that while it had not been an onerous task there were many meetings involved.
The election of office bearers will follow the presentation of inter-county medals and other business.
Ron Stronach
There must be people in Shetland who could provide time and effort to fulfill the roles on the football committee. When you think that the Shetland Team itself were knocking on the door of semi-professional competitions a couple of years ago and now Football at senior level could be gone.
I have experience of running football teams in England and I know even at team level its not easy, I’m sure at Country Level it’s even more difficult, but please someone come forward, you can’t let it die!