I'm a long way away from Canterbury geographically but it's pretty apparent that sides in the premiership run by the federations - canterbury , Southern , Hawkes bay and previously WaiBop - are not successful. The four sides that have won the premiership since it's inception - Auckland, Waitak , Wellington and Eastern Suburbs have all been club based. There is an inherent conflict between the activities of the federation and running an elite football side. Additionally the best administarors in NZ football have always been the unpaid volunteers , not the paid administrators with their fancy qualifications. Maybe it's time for the Russian and ChCh Utd to take over ?
It's not really as simple as that, Waitak has never been club based, although it could appear that way when Rex Dawkins was in charge
They are also the clubs from the big cities (Christchurch excepted) so they will have more resources, access to more money via advertisers, trusts etc
There have only been 2 clubs outside Auckland, Wellington & Christchurch that have ever won the National League (Napier City Rovers x 3, and Gisborne City x1)
Would also dispute that Southern are not successful, given that the franchise has been turned around since the federation took over (no more a guaranteed bottom 2 place)
What does need to be sorted is how the league can become financially viable, especially with the change in CWC money. And extending it to 27 games and some weird convoluted promotion \ relegation process isn't really the answer
Auckland City, Team Wellington and Waitakere United have more of the characteristics of regional representative franchises rather than clubs even if they are not run directly by their federations. They only field teams in the national league and national youth league and have no existence outside of that.
From Wikipedia: "Waitakere United was formed as a special franchise club in 2004 to play in the New Zealand Football Championship (NZFC), New Zealand's top domestic football competition. The team represents 12 member clubs from Mt Albert to the Kaipara."
Auckland City have close ties to Central United but are a different entity and field no teams outside of the national league.
In fact Auckland City were not even affiliated with the Auckland Football Federation as genuine clubs are required to be until this week:
http://www.aucklandfootball.org.nz/newsarticle/86754
They joined this week to satisfy NZ Football requirements for next season's nation league that participating clubs demonstrate a clear youth development pathway now the the national youth league is gone: "Auckland City FC join the federation member clubs in the form of a National League member club and will work in partnership with Central United FC to deliver elements of New Zealand Football’s Community Participation pathway."
Team Wellington (from Wikipedia): "Team Wellington FC was formed in 2004 by a consortium of Wellington clubs to compete in the New Zealand Football Championship. The uniform was yellow with black shorts, utilising the primary sporting colours of the Wellington region."
Of "the four sides that have won the premiership since it's inception - Auckland, Waitak , Wellington and Eastern Suburbs" only Eastern Suburbs is genuinely club based.
