Sustaining an Island football club
Air travel and its impacts in non-league
The English football league system runs deeper like no other in the world. Despite being the home of the Premier League, the richest and most watched division on the planet, the support for amateur and semi-professional clubs is extraordinary. Thousands flock every weekend to watch local football across the unique system that is non-league. If Egypt has the great Giza pyramids, England has the great football pyramid.
Generally, the deeper you go, the more regionalised the system gets. Staff and players are often volunteers, with the overwhelming majority of support coming from the towns and villages that the clubs strive to represent. As a result, teams are paired with those from similar geographic regions, limiting the amount of time and cost to travel to matches that are played away from home. Whether it be sixth-tier Truro City from the extremities of Cornwall, or seventh-tier Workington in the far corner of Cumbria, some sides find themselves racking up plenty of road miles in the process.
Some cases, though, are far more extreme…
Jersey Bulls
Jersey Bulls play in the ninth-tier of English football. On the pitch, they compete like anyone else in the country, but face totally different challenges off of it. Based in the Channel Islands, the club have to fly in order to travel to their away games, while opposition clubs must do the same when the Bulls are at home. Both ways though, the costs are at Jersey Bulls’ expense, as that was a key criterion when the club were accepted into the Combined Counties League in 2019.
Air travel for an entire football team in both directions for every match of a season is not cheap. Therefore, it’s fair to say that Jersey Bulls require a sizable amount of funding that exceeds that of their divisional rivals. The club’s chief executive, Ian Horswell, discussed how a football club in the depths of non-league can survive with such extreme costs placed over their heads.
“We started off with three main revenue streams – gate receipts, sponsorship and fundraising,” he explained. “Since then, we’ve added a shop and a retail arm which does well on matchdays. We've also added an alcohol licence, so therefore you can drink in the fanzone area now and we've got a corporate hospitality option, so all of these different facets help us with revenue generation.
“We’re also launching the Jersey Bulls Foundation, which will be a charitable arm to the club that will also have some income-generating activities. Whilst it might not directly affect the first team, what we'll be doing in schools will hopefully get more children involved.”
Jersey Bulls CEO Ian Horswell on the problems faced by the football club. Credit: Kallum Brisset.
Jersey Bulls CEO Ian Horswell on the problems faced by the football club. Credit: Kallum Brisset.
Community is hugely important to the Bulls. One advantage is that the club’s ground, Springfield Stadium, is the only place in Jersey where competitive football is played that stretches beyond the island’s 46 square miles. It brings people together and the formation of Jersey Bulls has brought huge sporting benefits to the island’s 100,000 population who are interested in football.
“For these lads to say they played in the FA Cup was unheard of 5-10 years ago in Jersey, so that really is special.”
Jersey Bulls debuted in the FA Cup with a 10-1 win over Horsham YMCA. Credit: Jersey Bulls FC.
Jersey Bulls debuted in the FA Cup with a 10-1 win over Horsham YMCA. Credit: Jersey Bulls FC.
Jersey Bulls had the highest average attendance in the division last season.
Jersey Bulls had the highest average attendance in the division last season.
But beyond the Jersey shores, plane travel brings its own environmental concerns. The Bulls acknowledge this is a problem and not a fully sustainable resolution, but know there is little to no choice when it comes to fulfilling fixtures, an issue that is far less prevalent elsewhere in the league. The club do, however, accept this and make no attempts to hide the problem, instead doing all they can to reduce their carbon footprint where possible.
“The most precious item is time and we're all volunteers, there are no paid employees at the football club,” Horswell continued. “But we could have an ESG champion that's telling us how we can offset our carbon emissions. Certain airlines actually offset them when you when you book, so credit to Blue Islands for example who do that, but we only use them on a minority of our flights because their routes go into Southampton while we're linked to Gatwick.
“With the pandemic, British Airways moved their operations from Gatwick to Heathrow, so we've now got the choice which is quite nice. But again, we'd love to work with corporate partners to say ‘right, how can we offset our carbon emissions’ and whatever that may be.
“There's lots of ways and means you can do that, but we do the smaller things, right? We bought some bits and bobs for the local football club to sell, it's all sustainable – plastic spoons are long gone and frowned upon, it's all the kind of stuff that can be recycled and whatnot.
“We have got some amazing ESG champions at the club who do the recycling for us.”
While running a football club sustainably, there are also key considerations as to whether the model allows the Bulls to continue to compete for years to come. The FA are hugely helpful in this, providing the Bulls with adaptability with fixtures, ensuring the club can complete a season while limiting their already inflated costs in the process.
Horswell is grateful for this. He said: “We do have a degree of flexibility on kick-off times and a massive thank you to a lot of the visiting clubs and the hosting clubs. A lot of times this season we've kicked off in between 12.30pm and 1pm, primarily because the flights aren't as frequent back to Jersey in the winter. The last flight back from Gatwick is at 5.30pm, so you have to kick off at 1pm otherwise you won't get back to Gatwick and get on that plane.
“A massive thank you goes to all the clubs that have accepted our request to kick-off early and sometimes that helps them because if you do an early kick-off, groundhoppers can come and they love to jump from one game to another – ticket offers a double header and that achievement which is great. Over here we traditionally kick off at 3pm, we could change that time if we have a mutual agreement with the opposition.
“The FA Vase defaults at 1pm and the reason is the FA stipulates the team can come over earlier and they don't necessarily need an overnight stay, which helps us a little bit with cash savings. And the romance of things such as the FA Cup and the FA Vase, it's there's always a dream at the end of it.
“The lads have thoroughly enjoyed testing themselves at a higher level and the community has totally embraced what we're doing here in Jersey, as have the other islands.”
Life as a volunteer
“It’s pretty full on and the travelling definitely takes its toll,” said Ed Peck, the Bulls’ live matchday videographer. “I have to take a half-day off work as holiday to travel over when it's a midweek, it is pretty brutal.”
The work of volunteers like Peck does not go unnoticed. Jersey Bulls have an extremely high standard of matchday work for a club at the level. Extended highlights packages and interviews are produced for every match, bringing supporters who understandably can’t make it to mainland UK closer to the action.
But it’s certainly a rewarding task.
“There's 40-odd games this season and it’s the aspect of ‘if we don't do this, some of the moments that are just incredible are missed’. I’m more than happy to pull my weight when the reality is the lads are doing some of the heavy lifting on the pitch.
“I'm just glad we can capture that and send it back to friends and family at home. When you get those moments, it makes it all worth it. Thankfully we've not missed any flights yet, that would be the scary one.”
EasyJet are the Bulls' most used airline. Credit: Jersey Bulls FC.
EasyJet are the Bulls' most used airline. Credit: Jersey Bulls FC.
The unity at Jersey Bulls is clear to see. Nobody is paid and everybody is on the same playing field, with the club extremely helpful in making sure travel arrangements for all those representing the club are sorted.
“I travel almost as part of the team so there's a lot of hands off from me from the travel perspective,” Peck continued. “They'll book me a hotel and pay for the flight so I don't have to worry about that.
“It’s like you're almost part of the squad at times, and anytime I need an interview or need to get anything extra, they’re always fully accommodating. Ten out of ten for those guys as well.
“If you had a few extra people maybe on payroll, you could do more. But the reality is you've then got the awkward conversation with people who aren't on payroll and who are giving their all for the club.
“There are a few volunteers who go above and beyond. Where do you where do you draw that line of I'm going to reward you but not you? How do you argue that the players are worth less than a volunteer?”
“How do you argue that the players are worth less than a volunteer?”
Guernsey FC
Jersey were not the first to branch into island football, though. Their near neighbours Guernsey were the trailblazers in that regard, entering the English pyramid in 2011. The Green Lions are bound by the same financial travel rules as the Bulls are, making it extremely difficult to continue to operate. For this reason, Guernsey are also fully voluntary, even rarer since they play in the eighth-tier, a level they have been at for 11 years.
Guernsey’s revenue streams are different, since they share their home stadium, Footes Lane, with the local rugby club. This means the rugby club earn all the money from bar and food sales, costing Guernsey FC thousands of pounds in valuable income. A purpose-built facility is on the way, though.
Director Nic Legg said: “Moving into the new facility will help us become more sustainable because we'll be able to make more money on a match day. Let’s be pessimistic, if we've got 700 every game and every person spends on average £5 whilst they're there and let's say we make £2 from that, that's £2 that we're not currently making. The collective total of that is actually quite a few flights, hopefully, so the club will become more sustainable.”
Guernsey compete in the eighth-tier of English football. Credit: Guernsey FC.
Guernsey compete in the eighth-tier of English football. Credit: Guernsey FC.
While Guernsey are competitive on the pitch, the club model means that football results are far from a number one priority. The community aspect of uniting the island and offering a platform for greater success is what the football club prides itself on.
Take the example of Alex Scott, who played for Guernsey before making a move to England to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Now, he’s playing regularly in the Premier League for Bournemouth while providing Bristol City with a club-record sale when he moved to the Cherries for £25 million.
“Guernsey FC is set up as a registered charity and the aim of the charity is to provide the opportunity for people to compete at the highest possible level they can,” Legg added. “It was set up as a community football club. Originally, the real focus was on giving Guernsey's young players an opportunity to play beyond the shores and at a higher level test themselves.
“Our biggest success is moving players on to bigger and better things, which is why the football club was set up, but it’s also going to restrict us. It's a challenge, but I honestly believe in the product and the direction Guernsey football, in general, is moving.
“The football club is about so much more than just football and it's creating a community. But ultimately, if we weren't able to find the £400,000 we need a season to survive, we just wouldn't exist.
“This season we've just introduced a women’s team so we've added to that equation, but actually it's the right thing to do because the football club was set up to give opportunities. Those opportunities shouldn't matter whether you're male or female and you're interested in football, so 100 per cent we've done the right thing in making sure we've introduced the Green Lionesses.
“It does mean that our bill goes up and our challenges increase, but that's a good thing and we're moving to the new facility to take that challenge on.”
“If we weren't able to find the £400,000 we need a season to survive, we just wouldn't exist.”
Guernsey preceded not only Jersey Bulls, but also FC Isle of Man, who recently became the third side from a Crown Dependency to enter the English pyramid. With all three facing similar issues, communication has been key, even in spite of the friendly feud between the two Channel Islands.
“There’s a massive rivalry between Guernsey and Jersey and we joke about it with the annual Muratti etc, but when Jersey Bulls were setting up we certainly spoke a lot and really picked the brains. I would say that we opened doors for Jersey Bulls – I think they used to look over to us a little bit jealous because we were having so much success.
“The Isle of Man was fantastic because when they set up they said that Guernsey inspired them and that they wanted their first ever game to be against Guernsey. We played at a sellout Bowl and it was fantastic. I've stayed really close friends with two people that were directors at the time of FC Isle of Man and the directors of the supporters club.
“In terms of how much we talk to each other, we don't really talk to Jersey. We have a bit of banter there, but I talk to FC Isle of Man because I've formed friendships with them there. It’s probably something we should probably share stories more often and talk about how we've overcome challenges. It's certainly something I'd be happy to do and tap into other people's ideas as well.”
Upon promotion, the Isthmian League became the second authority to accept Guernsey into their system. Despite the logistical challenges the club faces, the league treat the Green Lions like any other member, something Legg understands is a completely fair process.
“They certainly don't treat us any differently or do us any favours as such,” he said. “That's because if you want to sit at the table you've got to abide by the same manners. I'm not going to complain because they've given us a place in the league.
“There are things that they could do to make our life easier, but at the same time, they don't have to do that for everybody. Just because we have more challenges it doesn't mean that they should bend over backwards for us.”
View from the league...
“We have a number of millionaires on the island, I would ask them for help!”
That was the response to Isthmian League chair Nick Robinson in 2011 when he asked if Guernsey’s league membership could be sustainable in the long term. It was quoted back to him many times.
Robinson, who was vice-chair at the time, explained how Guernsey were welcomed by the overwhelming majority of league members at the time. Knowing that all travel costs would be covered at Guernsey’s expense, many were excited by the prospect of a different kind of away day.
“I think that it was fear of the unknown with some on my board, but we were very much in favour of it. We saw it as a great coup for Guernsey to come to the Isthmian League,” he said.
“The other clubs wanted to know when they were going to Guernsey because they were looking at it as a jolly and we were trying to say ‘no, it's not a jolly, it's a football match’. We were trying to say to them we're trying to treat this like any other match you play in the division. The majority of clubs look forward to it as it was something new.”
“We have a number of millionaires on the island, I would ask them for help!”
FC Isle of Man played their first game against Guernsey. Credit: Guernsey FC.
FC Isle of Man played their first game against Guernsey. Credit: Guernsey FC.
Favouritism or preferential treatment would not have been accepted by the league’s members. Thankfully, this has not been a problem for the Isthmian League, with the league’s boss stressing they are just another one of 82 teams in the Isthmian system.
This works the other way, too. Reporting finances and proving the club has the funding to compete is not something the league demands. Responsibility is firmly on Guernsey to sustain itself.
Robinson said: “They are treated the same as any other club. It's not a matter of proving that you have the facility, it's a matter of saying have you complied with all the laws.
“We have a financial reporting initiative so that twice a year every club has to complete a questionnaire setting out it has to prove that it's paid its PAYE, National Insurance and VAT.”
The other clubs, though, may also have had concerns about the financial power of the Green Lions, but the club recruit solely from the island due to the nature of non-paying staff and logistical difficulties. Robinson admires these beliefs and the values that are attached to Guernsey Football Club.
Roary the Lion is Guernsey's official club mascot. Credit: Guernsey FC.
Roary the Lion is Guernsey's official club mascot. Credit: Guernsey FC.
“So long as they've got the funding. At the end of the day, it is their problem in getting their funding like any other club. The great thing we've learned here is that their model is different from Jersey and Isle of Man. Their model is about Guernsey football, they don't sign other players. They are trying to build sustainable processes for themselves.
“What we've said is if Jersey get to Step 4 we wouldn't want them in the same division because we don't think that's right for our clubs. If you have to go to one, that's fine, that's in the good of the game that's good for football but you shouldn't be expected to go to two.
“As chairman of the league, the thought of having Jersey and Guernsey as a local derby attracted me but I have to put that to one side and think of the clubs in the division.”
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