Change in Chatham Cup setter wanted

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 4

Change in Chatham Cup setter wanted

Support is growing throughout the country for the New Zealand Football Association to make a radical change in the format of the Gillette Chatham Cup final. And no occasion would be more appropriate than for the fiftieth competition this season. The need is felt, both from a playing and financial point of view, for the final, by custom played at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, to be changed to home-and-away matches between the two finalists. There is little doubt that a move in this direction would add enormously to the final’s popularity, and therefore to the prestige of the competition which was formerly soccer’s showpiece, but since 1970 has been overshadowed by the Rothmans national league.

The N.Z.F.A., seemingly, has used the English F.A. Cup as a guideline in setting one venue for the cup final. Wembley, for many years, has been the home of the English final, as Wellington has been New Zealand’s.

But in the set-up of soccer in this country, there is no occasion for New Zealand to look to England for how things are, or should be, done, for the needs and the positions of soccer in the two countries are far different.

The Basin Reserve, because of the ground’s situation and unpredictable

winds in the capital, does not make an ideal setting for the final. Additionally, when finals are played between clubs coming from outside Wellington, public interest has been very limited, much of the game’s glamour lost, and a financial resource wasted.

In contrast, a final on a hpme-and-away basis would always produce one bumper gate and nine times out cf 10, two. Few finals are won

by big scores and interest in the return fixture would be as high as in the first leg.

There is still time for the N.Z.F.A. to see the real merit in a two-way final for this year’s competition, which will be reaching its quarter-final stage next Saturday. If the Wellingtonbased N.Z.F.A. executive is not prepared to make the change, it is to be hoped that the national council, with fewer sectional interests, will do so.