Early soccer start mooted
By
DAVID LEGGAT
The 1985 Rothmans Soccer League might start as early as February 24 next year. The chairmen of the 12 clubs will discuss the proposal when they meet in Auckland at the week-end of the Le Coq Sportif Chatham Cup final, October 13 and 14, and the New Zealand Football Association will also consider the matter at its next council meeting. The proposition calls for the national competition to run until May 25 when a three-week break would begin to allow for international fixtures involving the New Zealand team. The league would resume on June 23, with the final round set down for the final week in August. The Chatham Cup final has tentatively been pencilled in for August 31 and September 1. The reason for the early start is to get through the league and cup programme in time for the national squad to go into a training camp for two or three weeks in preparation for its opening World Cup qualifying match, against Australia on September 21. In order to prevent a crush of matches towards the end of the competition, it is likely a call for midweek league matches will be made. One club which is opposed to the basic , principle of mid-week league matches is Christchurch
Brother United, according to its chairman, Alex Fox. There were three main reasons United would not favour mid-week matches, he added. Players would need to be financially recompensed for the time off work; there would be little time for the players to prepare for the match, compared with a week-end game; and the players had their jobs to consider. The national league began this year on May 6, having
begun the season with the Air New Zealand Cup preseason tournament, which started on’ March 25. If that competition is to be slotted in at the start of the soccer year again, it will mean the top players in the country will be in action by early January. Pre-season training, therefore, would begin in December, giving basically amateur players no more than eight weeks off at the end of the present season.
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Bibliographic details
Press, 28 September 1984, Page 40
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357Early soccer start mooted Press, 28 September 1984, Page 40
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