Withdrawal affects N.Z. player

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 37

Withdrawal affects N.Z. player

By

GARY BIRKETT

.« The All White striker, Mike McGarry, is ponder,ing his playing future ' after the announcement that Dunedin City has , withdrawn from the national soccer league. McGarry, who was recently appointed to a teaching position at Otago "Boys’ High School, obviously needs national league soccer to maintain his place in the New Zealand side. The club chairman, Mr Dave Smeaton, said it was probable that McGarry would play elsewhere. “We don’t want to hold the lad back. He has been very loyal to us." Dunedin City’s withdrawal has upset many people connected with the game. There is a strong feeling that too many non- . national league clubs in Dunedin were content to /•enjoy the advantages of

.national league without lending a helping hand. One experienced soccer follower said that all paid lip service to the need for a national league team but few did anything concrete to assist. Mr Smeaton said the case against Dunedin City staying in the league was “overwhelming.” “We had everything to lose and nothing to win,” he said.

The club joined the league in 1£)78, finished second in 1981 and third the following year. It also won the Chatham Cup in 1982.

It cost the club more than $lOO,OOO a year to compete in the league. It had a $20,000 shortfall to make up this year before fund raising for next year even started.

Mr Smeaton said Dunedin was not the only club struggling financially,

and has urged N.Z.F.A. to look at restructuring the game.

He suggested a twotiered national league with a first and second division, or a league with one region from Dunedin and Invercargill to Wellington and another from Wellington north. A meeting of players, administrators and life members will be organised in the near future. It is hoped that a combined Otago team will make an application to the league for the 1989-90 season. The secretary of the N.Z.F.A., Mr John Arnold, said from Auckland that the criteria committee would meet before the week-end to decide which club would replace Dunedin City. The most likely candidates are West Auckland, Hamilton Rovers and Waterside, of Wellington.