Soccer chairman wants to improve regional standard

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 19

Soccer chairman wants to improve regional standard

Bryan Cunningham, the man at the centre of the southern region soccer council’s decision to return to a full regional league, accepts that there are clubs which will not want to take part in the travelling competition when it starts in 1987.

“There are some who have said they want to stay in their own zoned league. That’s fine. But for goodness sake don’t try and stop those clubs who want to progress to the top, who want to play in the best standard of football,” he said.

As the chairman of the southeern region council, Mr Cunningham is the man standing squarely in the eye of what is promising to build into a fine old storm. The decision to turn the two-zone Hertz League back into a fully open competition of 10 teams, made last Sunday at the meeting in Dunedin, could hardly be called a popular one.

The ultimate aim of the decision, said Mr Cunningham, is to improve the standard of soccer in the region which, unquestion-

ably, has dropped markedly in recent years. Clubs will apply to enter the new league, and must have done so by the end of May.

Four Christchurch clubs will be accepted, based on their ieague standings in the northern zone next winter and provided their facilities and ground meet reasonable requirements. Three clubs will come from Dunedin, and one each from Southland, North Otago and South Canterbury. There will be no relegation at the end of the first season, and preference will be given to nonRothmans League clubs. Travel equalisation will be used to share the costs, but Mr Cunningham, having done his sums, firmly rejects any suggestion of the competition costing clubs something approaching $lO,OOO each, as suggested by some concerned club administrators.

Matches in Invercargill will almost certainly be played on Sundays, with teams flying in and out on the day. Christchurch clubs would be in line for three one-nigj|t stops in Dunedin and ssme-day travel to Timaru and Oamaru, with

road transport provided. Mr Cunningham suggested that clubs will be up for no more than $6500.

Prize money for the first year will probably be $6OOO for first, and $2OOO for the runner-up. The two qualifying zones will have a $5OO cheque for the winners. The amount of prize money is expected to increase with each of the succeeding three years, the term initially envisaged for the league. At the end of the second year, those two zonal champions will play off with the bottom regional league team for a place in the 1989 competition. Mr Cunningham has an easy answer to the situation of less than four Christchurch clubs being willing to enter the regional league. “If only eight clubs wanted to take part we’d have an eight-team competition.” He made the point that clubs have received 18 months notice of intent to restructure the format. That, he believes, should be sufficient for clubs to get their houses in order for a competition which is ’designed to give soccer iriAthe south an overdue shot in the

arm. Complaints from clubs about the increased travel will fall on deaf ears. Mr Cunningham pointed out that the centre league involves journeys from Wellington to Palmerston North twice, and Masterton. The second division has Wellington teams competing in Gisborne, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Napier, Havelock North, Nelson and Palmerston North.

Mr Cunningham suggested clubs would run matches along the same lines as the national league. He accepted that some clubs might feel they are being railroaded into spending more money on a competition which, arguably, will not produce better quality soccer.

Provided the council can ride over the turbulent waters sure to be stirred up by those clubs vehemently opposed to the new league, and if it can come up with the sponsorship to make it a financially reasonable proposition, the council will have done a commendable job. DAVID LEGGAT