FORMATION OF SOCCER LEAGUE POSES MANY PROBLEMS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31597, 7 February 1968, Page 11

FORMATION OF SOCCER LEAGUE POSES MANY PROBLEMS

npHE decision to go ahead x with the southern league and the conditions laid down for entry have presented officials of Canterbury soccer clubs with the greatest problem they have been asked to solve. Finances, administration and the fear of being left behind if they do not join are all included in this highly indigestible meal. Of the three regional groupings suggested as forerunners to the national league, the southern league has problems peculiar to itself. By far the most difficult of the latter are the

distances between main centres and the fact that there is only one large soccer-playing district in. the northern and central areas but two in the southern— Christchurch and Dunedin. Auckland dominates the northern grouping and Wellington the central grouping and it is natural that the greater number of entries in the first divisions of these two competitions are based within short distances of each other. It is likely, however, that Dunedin and Christchurch will split the first division, and in this 'case Christchurch clubs will have at least four long journeys each season. These entail the major financial worries, although if an Invercargill club is also accepted in the first division, the travelling problem becomes far greater. Of far more moment is the difficulties in which dubs will be involved in the second division, for here there could be Invercargill and Gore clubs, possibly even a West Coast side.

Most clubs hope to overcome this by making reciprocal arrangements to billet teams, but there are the additional problems of getting players to travel on Friday evenings, arranging for cars to transport players and officials and getting the co-operation of players to spend at least four week-

ends away from home. These would be in addition to the three or more required from players in the representative teams. It is possible that the proposal to form two divisions of eight teams each will be beyond the management committee’s capacity in the first season. If there are no more than 10 entries—as some people expect—these are likely to

form the first division, for divisions of eight and two or six and four would be impracticable.

For reasons best known to itself, the management committee of the league has frowned on amalgamated teams, although, conversely, it is prepared to take them from South Canterbury, Southland and the Coast Yet it would be a brave committee that would refuse the entries of amalgamated teams from Canterbury and Otago if they were confronted with the problem of refusing them and thereby seeing their plans to form the league next season fall because of lack of entries from individual clubs.

For years, it has been argued that there are too many senior clubs in toe provincial competitions; too many clubs chasing too few talented players and, consequently, lowering the standard of the game. The southern league is an ideal way to break down this barrier to advancement. Amalgamations should be encouraged, even if they are only to fulfil the southern league programme, leaving the uniting clubs the right to enter teams in their own names in the Canterbury FA. competitions.

The problem is serious for any club which might decide it cannot afford to enter the * southern league. If four or five other senior clubs do enter, it would leave those outsiders playing in a local competition lacking any public interest and so boring to the players of ability that they would soon transfer to clubs playing in toe senior competition.

Therefore, a form of amalgamation, of a loose or tight nature, could be the one door left open to the clubs now unable to enter the southern league. If they are barred from doing so by some arbitary ruling, soccer would be the greatest loser. The southern league has been based largely on the central competition. In the latter, after the original proposals had been detailed and

entries received, two clubs, Diamond and Wellington United decided to amalgamate. It was fulsomely welcomed by New Zealand and Wellington administrators as a step in the right direction. Obviously, similar amalgamations could be no less welcomed in Canterbury and Otago.

Any two clubs joining forces would automatically split the $lOO entry fee and halve the travelling expenses. Also, they would have twice the number of senior players from which to select their southern league team and from whom to find enough willing to surrender their week-ends with their families. If soccer is to advance, even in a limited fashion through a regional competition, this is the time for the casting away of narrowmindedness, of petty jealousies, of the holding on to yesterday’s memories. Virtual oblivion as a senior dub faces those who cannot afford to take the next step into the southern league. They must now decide whether a half share in the future of the game is better than none at all.

Nor should they be put off by any rulings on amalgamations made by the southern league committee. They have been made without prior consultation with the clubs and should not be binding under present difficulties. Nor, probably, would the committee faced with a decision, debar these amalgamations.