The Isles of Scilly Football League is the official football league for the Isles of Scilly

Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...

. The football league is reportedly the smallest in the world, with only two clubs.

The league is affiliated with The Football Association

The Football Association

The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...

.

History

In the 1920s, the Lyonnesse Inter-Island Cup, a competition between the islands of St. Mary's

St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

St Mary's is the largest island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-Description:...

, Tresco, St. Martins

St Martin's, Isles of Scilly

St Martin's is the northernmost populated island of the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom. It has an area of .-Description:There are three main settlements on the island - Higher Town, Middle Town and Lower Town - in addition to a number of scattered farms and cottages, with a total population of...

, Bryher

Bryher, Isles of Scilly

Bryher is the smallest of the five inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly. It is home to a population of 83 . Bryher has an area of .-Geography:...

 and St. Agnes

St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly

St Agnes is the southernmost populated island of the Isles of Scilly, England, United Kingdom.-Description:St. Agnes joins the island of Gugh by a tombolo, a kind of sandbar, called the Gugh Bar, which is exposed only at low tide...

, was formed. By the 1950s, only two clubs remained - the Rangers and the Rovers. In 1984 the two clubs changed their names to the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers, which are their current names.

The League is attempting to get into the Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 for the smallest league in the world.

In April 2008, Adidas

Adidas

Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...

 ran an advertisement called "Dream Big", highlighting the league, featuring several well-known football personnel including David Beckham

David Beckham

David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...

, Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard

Steven George Gerrard MBE is an English footballer who plays for and captains Premier League club Liverpool. He also has 89 caps for the England national team. He has played much of his career in a centre midfielder role, but he has also been used as a second striker and right winger...

 and Patrick Vieira

Patrick Vieira

Patrick Vieira is a retired French footballer of Senegalese descent who is the Football Development Executive at Manchester City....

.

Competition structure

The League competition involves the Woolpack Wanderers and the Garrison Gunners playing each other every Sunday seventeen times. There also exist two Cups: The Wholesalers Cup and the Foredeck Cup, which is played over two legs. An "Old Men versus the Youngsters" match is played on Boxing Day

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...

. The season itself starts with the Charity Shield. All the matches are played on the Garrison football field, on the island of St. Mary's

St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

St Mary's is the largest island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-Description:...

.

The league is played during the winter, from mid-November until the end of March.

Occasionally, a combined Scilly Isles team play a team Newlyn Non Athletico, a team at level 14 of the English football league system

English football league system

The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for association football clubs in England, with six teams from Wales also competing...

. A team from Truro

Truro

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...

visits annually to play against a combined team.

Honours

The Woolpack Wanderers have won the Charity Cup 5 times - in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. In addition, they have won the Lioness Shield twice - in 2006 and 2007.

The Garrison Gunners have won the Lioness Shield once, in 2005.

Concerns

The Isles of Scilly are struggling to hold on to their young people. There is no sixth form on the Isles so when youngsters turn 16, they go to the mainland. In addition, house prices are expensive, so they tend not to return until much older. As a result, the number of players in the league is "dwindling". Howard Cole, a secretary who referees the games, estimated the average age of both teams to be within the mid- to late-30s.