Stokmarknes IL has withdrawn the men’s team from the 4th division ahead of the start of the series. On April 27, the team was actually supposed to meet Landsås on the artificial grass at home in Stokmarknes.
Instead, it is now up to the 5th division game, and preferably with one team, even if the club was already registered with the second team in that division.
– Too thin stable
Johnny Stikholmen, co-coach for the A-team and board member of Stokmarknes Fotball, says the club this week reported to the circuit that they must withdraw from the 4th division.
Actually, it wasn’t a difficult decision, although he thinks it’s a shame.
– It is about the fact that we have too thin a stable. We are simply not equipped for the 4th division, and we have last year’s season fresh in our minds. There were many bad experiences with almost only losses, some of them quite solid, says Stikholmen.
Despite finishing last in the table last year, it was given the opportunity to keep its place in the 4th division. The ambition was to strengthen the stable ahead of the start of the season this year, but instead the opposite has happened.
Some players have gone to other clubs, some have moved to go to school or do military service.
– We are worse equipped now than we were last year, says Stikholmen.
One team in fifth
At the same time that several players have disappeared from the team, there have been a number of injuries in the build-up and consistently low attendance at training, he says.
– It’s a shame that it took so long before everything was clarified, but it also took a long time before we got the coaching team in place. We didn’t start until January.
– We have tried to create a good process internally and involve the player group, taking into account what they wanted. We have a handful of players who would most like to play in the 4th division, but in order to do that we must have 20 players who want the same, says Stikholmen.
He describes the decision to pull the team as simple and necessary.
– What happens to the first team now?
– It will be a bit premature to answer, but basically it will mean that we will get one Stokmarknes team that will compete in the 5th division. We have to wait a bit to see what the circuit says, but I expect it will be automatic that we take over the place that Stokmarknes 2 has in the 5th division.
Danger of more people leaving
– What about the players who would prefer to play in the 4th division, will they go to other clubs?
– There is always a risk of that, and I am not surprised if it happens. But we hope that as many as possible will be in Stokmarknes IL, so that we get a powerful team in the 5th division. There are many teams betting there too, says Stikholmen.
He believes the 5th division will be the right level in any case, based on the number of players the club has available today.
– I am concerned that all teams should have a good development arena. Taking big losses can kill the motivation of some players. It’s a shame, but this is the only right thing to do.
In the longer term, the club has ambitions to step up to the 4th division again, and stabilize there.
– We fight in many ways for the same players, the teams that are in Vesterålen. We only have our own recruitment into the stable. If we are to take it a step further, we will probably depend on getting players from outside. I don’t know what the others do, but I suspect that someone has a significantly higher budget than us, says Johnny Stikholmen.
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