With the Island’s 16 sides beginning the 2015/16 campaign in one tier before an eight and eight split is made, there has been some uncertainty regarding the points rulings, but JFC vice-president Jon Welsh has confirmed the two leagues cannot include points earned from elsewhere.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jsy Scottish | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 9 |
| St Ouen | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 7 |
| Rozel Rovers | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| St Peter | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 6 |
| St Clement | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| St John | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Grouville | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 6 |
| Jsy Wanderers | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Trinity | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| St Paul’s | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Jsy Portuguese | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 3 |
| Sp Academics | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 14 | -9 | 3 |
| St Brelade | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 0 |
| St Lawrence | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 7 | -5 | 0 |
| First Tower | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 15 | -14 | 0 |
| Beeches OB | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 17 | -16 | 0 |
The regulation does, in theory, mean a side finishing ninth in December (courtesy of points picked up against stronger teams) could end up dropping down to the foot of the league table, but Welsh, who is also chairman of the Island’s junior league, is confident results will lead to a fair finish.
‘You can’t have points in a league from a team that are no longer in that league,’ said Welsh. ‘It’s probably a Fifa regulation, not just one from the FA.
‘We’ve done it in the junior league for years now where the league is played as one and then split, and I don’t think we’ve ever had a team finish sixth (in a ten team league) who have won most of their points against teams in the top half.
‘The only thing we can use as a template is junior football, and it has worked really well. I doubt a team who finishes ninth in December will suddenly end up near the bottom because of the points deduction – in reality the teams below the split have done well against other teams at the bottom.’
There is also the possibility that, come November and December, ‘dead rubbers’ will have to played between teams whose fate has already been assured (one in the Premiership, one in the Championship).
‘I think the feeling is teams want to play more games and want to challenge themselves,’ Welsh added. ‘So I don’t think they will not want to play those games. I can only recall it happening once in the junior league, where a weaker side were due to be playing the top team in the last game before the split.
‘Like a lot of things we’ve got to try them to find out what the pitfalls are. I hope we do this every season, but if we do find pitfalls we’ll revert back to eight and eight.’
