Assn Undecided On Need Of Rep. Soccer

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 18

Assn Undecided On Need Of Rep. Soccer

The question of whether provincial soccer has a place in New Zealand was discussed at great length at last evening’s meeting of the Canterbury Football Association’s management committee, but no decision was reached.

The discussion stemmed from a report on the merits and future of provincial football compiled for the New Zealand Football Association by Mr T. J. Rigby, which has been circulated to associations for their views. Provincial football in New Zealand is at the cross-roads because of the growth of the club league system which leaves less and less timi for representative fixtures, says the report. Associations throughout the country have had to prune their usual representative programmes because of the demands on grounds and players made by the regional leagues.

The C.F.A. is likely to call a special general meeting of clubs to get their views before it decides whether New Zealand soccer should devote most of its time to the development of regional leagues and eventually in the establishment of a national league or ta attempt to combine league and representative football.

Leagues Come First “The leagues must come before representative soccer,’’ said the chairman (Mr T. C. Gottermeyer).

“We have to make a decision whether we are going to scrap representative football or not,” said Mr M. Pahi. “The three league winners playing on a home-and-away basis would be better than representative matches at the end of the season.’’

He suggested that the only representative football should be Junior National Cup and that this should be played after the leagues had finished. “The associations must give the teams more help,’’ said Mr Pahi. “The only way would be to cut down on expenses for representative games and help to finance the clubs that are getting nothing out of the leagues. “Eventually, the leagues should be able to look after themselves. This is the only way football will improve.’’ “I can see no reason for dropping representative football,’’ said Mr R. Storer. “Auckland has had regional league longest and has still been able to have a good representative programme.’’ "There is absolutely nothing in representative matches such as the Jones Cup,’’ said Mr A. Wilson. “Marty of the players could not cane less about playing these games. They only play because they are asked.** Champions’ Hatch Plans to bring the central league champion, Western Suburbs, to Christchurch to

play the southern league champion, Christchurch City, on September 28 failed because the central league has arranged a match against the northern league on the same day. An alternative plan to have Western Suburbs play on September 21 also failed because the Otago F.A. was not prepared to change the date of the second leg of the Jones Cup which was already scheduled for September 21.

The committee will now reinvite Western Suburbs to play on October 6 and decided to transfer the O’Briens sponsored tournament final from September 18 to September 28 and to play as a curtain-raiser a match between the under-lSs of Canterbury and Wellington for the Osten Cup. The third and fourth place match in the sponsored tournament will still be played on September 18. with a curtainraiser between New Zealandborn and Overseas-born. Mr R. C. Carter will select the overseas team and Mr Storer the New Zealand side. Registration Cards Unless the Shamrock. Ashburton and Shirley-Nomads clubs complete their registration cards and hand them into the C.F.A. within a week a fine of $2O will be imposed.