No southern entry for play-offs

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33003, 24 August 1972, Page 24

No southern entry for play-offs

No Southern League club will play in the 1972 season play-off series for entry into the national soccer competition.

Invercargill City, which has won the Southern League and has automatic entry into the play-offs, has told the N.Z.F.A. that it will not take up its option. The club does not feel it has the resources yet for national soccer but might be ready if the opportunity again arises in 1974. Under the rules of the

Rothmans National League, if the champion club in a regional competition does not enter the play-off series, provision is made for the runnerup to do so. Second place in this season’s Southern League competition rests between Western and Christchurch City, and the finishing place of both clubs will be decided in the last round of the competition on Saturday. However, neither Western nor City intends to enter the play-off series. The planned merger between United and City next season was reported yesterday.

The chairman of Western, Mr L. Low, said yesterday: “The club committee has fully discussed this matter and has decided we would not be a starter in the national league play-off series at this stage. “The problem is one of finance and Western is not in a posititon yet to take on national league football. If the position arises again next season, it might be a different matter. “It is Western’s ambition to enter the club in the national league when we are ready, either on our own or in partnership.

“Perhaps if we had an offer from another club for this season’s play-off series we might reconsider the position. Otherwise, we will not make an entry.” The absence of a Southern League entry will now mean the play-off series being contested by the bottom national league team (either Auckland City or New Brighton) and the champions of the other two regional leagues. In the central competition, Wellington-Diamond United, Nelson United, Western Suburbs and Waterside each has 20 points. Waterside has four more games to play,

W.D.U. and Nelson three, and Suburbs only one. The competition leader is Miramar Rangers—22 points and one more game—but as this club is associated with Wellington City, already a member of the national league, it would not make itself available for the series even if it won the central championship. Three clubs are striving for the Northern League title—Birkenhead United (24 points), Hamilton (23) and North Shore United (21). Each has three games to play.