Canterbury's Solution To National Soccer League: Two New Clubs?

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30200, 3 August 1963, Page 9

Canterbury's Solution To National Soccer League: Two New Clubs?

AfR G. L. Whyte, a memher of the New Zealand Football Association’s publicity committee, has been instructed to draw up a blueprint for a national soccer league, possibly to start next season. How will Canterbury meet the chailenge if Mr Whyte propvses, as he is expected to do, a league of 10 or 12 teams, comprising two each from Auckland, Wellington Canterbury and Otago, and one each from the smaller assocrations such as Waikato and W “ Ban £? a ven to Mr task given to Mr Whyte is enormous: the cost, organisation and disruption to existing competitions, the treading on pet corns are only a few of the

obstacles he has to overcome. If his scheme is too revolutionary it may not gain national support; if it is lukewarm it might prove a ghastly flop. Soccer officials can only wait until Mr Whyte’s blueprint is published before making any concrete decisions, but this does not mean that Canterbury cannot now be .considering how it will select its two teams for the national league. Onl t ou ?a S y Dr^ica winner and runner- » vpar’s Mnripv shield ccSmwHtten (Nomads WesteJb) elected if “ d We be elected if new league is to start next season or the winner

and runner-up of next season's Hurley Shield competition if the league starts in 1965; (b) the formation of two entirely new clubs. The first course will present numerous problems If the new league starts next season, would Nomads and Western become Canterbury’s permanent representatives? It is hignly unlikely that the other four clubs in the premier division and some of those in 016 dlvl ??°". w ? uid * c ‘ protest * strenuous proiesi. ... Therefore, would the Canterbury representatives be comp eUed to resist an annual challenge, in the form of that side occupy-

ing the lower position in the national league playing a promotion-relegation match with the winner of the current season's Hurley Shield competition? Neither would this solution be entirely satisfactory. The two clubs who enter the national league would need to strengthen themselves by drawing off the best players from other clubs, for they would not be able to challenge successfully in the new competition with their present teams. And any club that had hopes of winning a future promotion-relegation match would resist any poaching of their players and thus reducing their chances of victory. The way round these problems might be the formation of two new clubs: e.g. Christchurch United and Christchurch Rovers; neither name would conflict with an existing club. The structure of the local competitions would remain and from these would come the future national league players.

ensure that the clubs go into the national league

The formation of these clubs might be left to the Canterbury Football Association in their first season, but the organisation would ■ be passed over to permanent officials once the clubs had taken their preliminary r.eps. The players might be drawn from existing clubs in the starting form of Canterbury A and B teams, but this would sort itself out in future years. If officials need to look for a precedent, cities in England have something similar: Manchester with its United and City. Sheffield its United and Wednesday. Bristol its City and Rovers, Bradford and Bradford City. To accept such a proposal officials may have to cut themselves adrift from the clubs they have been associated with for many years, even prepared to see such clubs lose some of their strength. The existing clubs, too, would have to sink their personal interests in the cause of the province. But for soccer to grow and prosper in Canterbury it must produce two teams that will hold their own in the national league and draw the crowds to English Park, whether the matches are played on Saturday or under floodlights of an evening. Imaginative and farseeing solutions to the existing problems are vitally necessary.

The fact that the two new clubs .would become permanent members of the national league would be in itself beneficial. They would draw new spectators to English Park, cut across the sectional interests surrounding the present clubs, provide a stimulus and ambition for youngsters and