After two editions canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Muratti Vase is back in the cold waters of the English Channel. The annual football tournament, launched in 1905, pits Jersey against Guernsey and Alderney, the three main Channel Islands.
The most modest formation of the competition, Alderney (1,800 inhabitants, 15 km²), receives each year in the semi-finals, Jersey (112,000 inhabitants) or Guernsey (68,000 inhabitants) in turn, on its rural ground of Mount Hale . The winner of this duel then plays the final against the island exempted from the semi-final. Alderney has only won it once, in 1920! Against 55 victories for Jersey, and 46 for Guernsey.
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‘Worst game in all of Britain’
“There has been a buzz around this tournament for a month. All the players on the team are eager to battle it out. It’s probably the biggest sporting event around here, so it’s a huge opportunity for all of us.”, enthused Alderney player (and coach) Josh Concanan. Deprived of the island competition because of the Covid, some discovered the Muratti this year. “The most beautiful moment of sport in my life”, comment the young entrants.
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On the Guernsey side, we did not go there with joy in our hearts. For the team’s acting boss, Tony Vance, it was the ‘Britain’s worst game’not in terms of the quality of play, but rather of the pressure which weighs on the players of Guernsey, at the time of facing a team much less strong than her. “Alderney had nothing to lose and we really had nothing to gain other than the game. It’s the banana peel of all banana peels: at some point they’re going to beat someone up and luckily it wasn’t us. »
On April 23, therefore, a quarter of the inhabitants of Alderney came to support their players. But the match ended in a 0-2 in favor of Guernsey.
The women’s version of the tournament has existed since 2022. Guernsey will try to bring the title back to its island, in the May 21 final against Jersey. The latter, the most successful of the tournament, allowed herself to inflict an 18-0 record on Alderney in 1994.
