No Decision Yet On Soccer’s Ups A nd Downs

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30808, 21 July 1965, Page 19

No Decision Yet On Soccer’s Ups A nd Downs

(By Our Soccer Reporter.) Although New Brighton has finished bottom of the Hurley Shield soccer competition and should be relegated, the club will not know for probably two or three months whether it will be playing its football next season in the first or second division.

Three factors may influence New Brighton's status—a rule of the Canterbury association that a promoted club must have two senior teams; an attempt to streamline the provincial competitions next season; and the possible formation of a South Island league. This season's Chatham Cup “giant-killer,” Waterside, has won the second division championship and with it the right to be promoted. But Waterside enters only one team in the Canterbury competitions and it might have some difficulty producing two sides. The Waterside club secre-

tary, Mr P. J. Toner, thinks it can. He said after his club had clinched the second division championship on Sunday by beating Celtic 4-0: “If the C.F.A. agrees we should be promoted we could provide a second team to play in the reserve competition.”

The only query the C.F.A. might raise with Waterside is whether its second team would be of the required strength. The C.F.A.’s ruling on this matter is not unjustified. It asks that a first division team should have an adequate supply of strong reserves in case a team suffers a run on injuries.

The streamlining of the competitions is long overdue. At present far too many games are being played on Sundays, and the players and officials are being burdened with two games each weekend. They are beginning to feel the strain. The referees, to, are being asked to do too much. Some are refusing to take Sunday games, and the enthusiasm of those carrying an unfair burden will deteriorate considerably if something is not done soon, either to increase the number of referees (now becoming a major problem) or to cut down the competitions in which an official referee is required. The South Island league is becoming a hardy annual and few Canterbury officials really w’ant it. It would be only a stop gap to a national league and has very little to offer Canterbury. Only Otago in the South Island is of comparable standard to Canterbury, week in and week out, and even if two teams from each of these provinces were entered it would hardly prove an exciting competition.

However, it Is being backed quite strongly by the New Zealand Football Association and Otago is at present negotiating with a sponsor. There is still talk of the league being started this season. All these factors make the future of New Brighton, and of Waterside, a matter of conjecture until the final decision on next season’s competitions is made. This is unlikely to be decided until the half-yearly meeting and until then both clubs will have to be patient. Unfortunately, the one competition that is desperately needed in New Zealand—a national league—which in itself would resolve all these minor problems, is still being batted around with no firm move being made by the New Zealand association. The proposal of six Auckland clubs to form a semiprofessional league may force the New Zealand association into some concrete action soon. Otherwise, it will find the control of soccer slipping out of its hands.