Soccer On The Wrong Road With Regional Leagues

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 9

Soccer On The Wrong Road With Regional Leagues

THE ups and downs of official opinion on the formation of a national soccer league are as bewildering to the observer as they seem to be to the clubs and provincial associations. The latest statement from the New Zealand Football Association favouring regional competitions in the place of a national league came as a complete surprise. The reaction might be likened to a driver, not too sure of the direction he should take, who sticks out his left indicator and turns sharply right The confusion he leaves in his wake is nothing to the confused state of his own mind when he realises that the road he has taken is leading him back to where he began.

From a mountain of effort countless meetings of the national body, the national league sub-committee and provincial associations, and the thousands of words written and spoken on the subject, the N.Z.F.A. has produced a mole-hill of a

proposal that takes soccer hardly a step forward. A year ago the N.ZJ*.A. appeared agreed that a national league was vital to soccer, that progress was impossible without it, even that the continued existence of the game was in danger without the transfusion of national competition. Last month it was reported that 10 centres had indicated their willingness to form a national league, the entries coming from Manawatu, Taranaki, Nelson, Wellington, Gisborne, Auckland, West Coast, Otago, Canterbury and Wanganui. Wellington had put forward five teams, Auckland two or three and Canterbury two. The national league subcommitte vetted the entries and reported back to the N.Z.F.A. council on March 3. It was at this meeting that the death notice was written over national lea-

gue. Mr G. L. Whyte, who had largely prepared the latest blue-print for a national league, said that regional competitions had been proposed because it was felt “a scheme on a national basis would be doomed.” The council chairman, Mr J. I. Kershaw, went further. He said: “Looking at the calibre of the teams as we know them, the national league would fail flat right away.” So much then for all the pious hopes of those who were led to believe that the top leaders of the N.Z.F.A. were firmly behind a national league. That it needed only national leadership to set the league in motion. That clubs and provinces would eventually follow their leaders on the only road soccer can take to progress and prosperity. And that too many “second bests” had been tried and found wanting. Instead, the N.Z.F.A. has thrown a regional competition bail to the provincial associations to kick about, for yet another interminable round of committee meetings, proposals, amendments and recommendations,

The new proposal is for three regional groupings—a northern league comprising Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and Franklin; central league: Poverty Bay, Wanganui, Manawatu,' Wairarapa, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson and Hawke’s Bay; southern league: Buller, Canterbury, South Canterbury, North Otago, Otago. Southland and West Coast.

If further proposals were put forward at the council meeting these were not reported. Are the leagues to comprise club teams or provincial elevens? Will the winners of the regional competitions play off for a national title? How many club teams, if these are to comprise the leagues, will be invited from each area? Are these questions being left to the provincial associations to decide?

The costs to clubs playing in a national league has always been the major problem bedevilling its formation. They will not disappear in a regional competition, although they may not be as great. But in the

southern league, stretching from Christchurch to Invercargill, costs will not be insignificant. The national league was always meant to be a “super” competition, comprising at the outset the 10 strongest club teams in New Zealand. They were to have been composite elevens, made up of the best players from each area, whether by the amalgamation of existing clubs or the formation of new clubs. It was anticipated that the clubs would bring to New Zealand more overseas players to strengthen their own teams and increase spectator support. It was admitted the league would have to struggle for its dear life. It was known that only with all soccer supporters pulling their weight could it survive.

Whether a great opportunity has been lost is now back in the hands of club and provincial associations. It is not to late for them to reverse the present N.Z.F.A. course—and put the driver behind the wheel, on the right road.