Northern Leagues

Technically as it's been referred back to AFF they could enforce the same penalty. 

There have been four instances in Northern League history of retrospective application of the rules relating to an ineligible player having been fielded in multiple matches, Graeme, so there is precedent regarding the original decision.

TKU's appeal targets a number of issues, including:
- you can't lodge an appeal after the three-day lodgement deadline has passed; (that's where the retrospective application of the rules side of things comes into play);
- why has the Appeals Committee taken three months to determine the outcome of Waitakere's appeal, which was submitted in mid-May - the Committee's findings were made known in mid-August. (This is what the NZF Committee is referring to in its finding).

The league up here has not been well run this season. We are now in October, and the final standings have not yet been confirmed, while the final ball of the season was kicked on Tuesday night, just days shy of the start of the ASB National Youth League.

The whole thing should be done and dusted prior to the Chatham Cup Final taking place, no ifs, buts or maybes. This practice is certainly the case in the top flight competitions in the Central, Capital, Mainland and Football South federations. I see no reason why the Northern League should be any different, even though there are twelve-team divisions up here compared to ten or less further south.

Easter next year is set down for the last weekend in March, so if at least one round is played then, there are enough playing dates through to an anticipated CCF date of September 18 to allow for 22 rounds of league action plus five rounds of Cup action prior to the final. 

Throw in the prospect of playing matches under lights on turf pitches during the week - you can't say there aren't enough of them around nowadays to rule that out of the equation, and aside from travel issues (i.e. out-of-town teams), there should be no excuses for not taking advantage of those facilities. You could very easily complete the thick end of one, possibly two rounds under lights on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening. It would also help in better utilising the refereeing resources ... there are far more positives than negatives for doing this.


Cheers,

JR

It has been run poorly - one of the issues we have come across is that NFF in particular are a bit sneaky when it comes to rescheduling of games - that doesn't help the cause.

But AFF have to shoulder most of the blame - yes there were mitigating circumstances with the U20's World Cup but that should have been able to be managed but it wasn't.

At the end of the day with Three Kings it's a shame to be punished for what amounts to a clerical error (although I'm told they were emailed and made aware of Tom's record at Auckland City) but equally what about the teams who legitimately faced an in-eligible player?

If the case for TK being not correctly registered is clear (and it's not) then I don't care how late the appeals come they should stand.

Hopefully out of this comes a system where clubs can check an online database for players to see if they are correctly registered (from other clubs) rather than rely on hersay and gossip.

From what I understand TK was registered with TKU correctly. But another instance of TK was still registered with Auckland City and yet another instance of TK was unregistered. This also brought to light several other players who had multiple instances in the player database. It was assumed that Auckland City had the correct player registered and therefore TKU was punished. It is possible Auckland City had an ineligible player playing for them. All three instances have since been merged in to one, along with the other players with multiple instances.

The reason it has taken so long was the overall impact of the decision. It wasn't a case of dropping from 3rd to 8th. It had relegation implications from Northern Premier League. No doubt Melville will have something to say though I think the right result has come about with TKU getting their points back and avoiding relegation.

From what I understand Auckland City advised NZF at the end of the comp that there was a number of players still registered with them, and an email was sent from NZF to AFF to advise their clubs and AFF sent this to Three Kings.

Now the question then is why didn't Three Kings take action at this point and furthermore who decides which record is the correct one?  Maybe Auckland City had the wrong record and they played an ineligible player? 

It's a mess...

So. Which NRFL Prem teams might singly or jointly apply to go up to next year's National League? A Glenfield/Birko alliance for a North Harbour franchise?

Haha! All clubs on the Shore way too small minded and petulant to form any kind of alliance. Too many old Poms who still think that football one day will be the number 1 sport in NZ

Maybe after that Israel and Palestine will settle their differences and join the Arab League! ;-)

Football is the number one sport in the Country.

How are the Auck U19 sides looking for Labour weekend?

western springs...Birkenhead.Bay Olympic 

Will be the best

Aren't Bay Olympic and springs in same group?

yep they are..

Bay Olympic have the majority of there 1 st team which did ok during the season...

Springs are very strong

aren't there 5 Springs in NZ 17s and won't have them at Napier?

yes but still very strong...

I can tell you now that ECB will struggle to not be relegated

They have struggled over the last few year's no idea why as they seem to have a large pool of players in that age group!

Birkenhead still the team to beat up there?

springs and Birkenhead then Bay.o

Looks like Napier, Karori, Three Kings and Stop Out the other teams in Springs and Bay Olympics group.

I think that's the hardest group by along way...

so Franklin Utd look like they are entering NRFL next season - looks to be a good move for football in the area - more information on their facebook page - I for one am interested to see how it goes.

https://www.facebook.com/Franklinutdfc

Will they be allowed to enter the Chatham Cup?

minging logo

i imagine just like the clubs that form North Force they will be allowed to enter as separate entities, but not as Franklin Utd.

Don't think that's the final product. At least I'm hoping it isn't.

LOL!

I don't think it's that important for a merged entity - I mean the NF logo isn't much chop.

Playing colours for FU could be interesting though

I'd have thought they'd go with some sort of blue and maroon combo? Unless they go for something completely neutral. Thinking of chucking my hat into the ring for one of the coaching gigs, so it'll be fun to see how all this progresses (with or without me on board! LOL)

Franklin Utd Counties Kingz

Go on I dare you.

One of the proposals out of the recent NRFL ops meeting is about the kick off times of Reserves games.

1) AFF due to the lack of referee's basically want to increase the gap between the reserves game finishing and the First Team game starting to 45 mins instead of the 30mins it is at the moment - this is to allow the reserves referee more time to get ready to do the line on the first team game

2) When there is a game involving a team out of town (so Tauranga playing in Auckland or Ellerslie playing in Hamilton) there is a proposal to have the Reserve game kick off and then the First Team game kick off just 30 mins later on a different field - this is to reduce travelling time I suppose.  (these games would obviously require separate referee resource)

Does anyone from a supporting/fans point of view have any feelings on these proposals?  I'm just curious.

the only issue I see is that a number of first teams use some of the reserves as substitutes for the first team game! Often these may be younger players that will play for the reserves and then sit on the bench for experience (and may even get game time)

Good to see that North Shore and Takapuna are joining up so that once again there is a very strong club on the North Shore that can win trophies like they used to.

Urm how are North Shore and Takapuna strong. Div 1 .and div 2 teams

North shore  no youth over 13 yrs old 

Takapuna no youth at all.

Guess I must have misread their websites.

yep think you did.....

The comment I made was after reading the Herald article that North Shore and Takapuna have joined forces in an effort  to bring the glory days of national league football back to the North Shore. 

This is what I was pleased about.

Topic change

Anyone hear any update on TKgate?  I have heard Three Kings are pretty confident of staying in premier league?  Or is that just what they are telling their new signings???

Due any day, Chopah. Seven clubs submitted to the NFRL disciplinary committee.

After reading the NZF committee decision, I formed the view Three Kings would ultimately lose the points under dispute once matters of process had been followed. 

However as a colleague observed: "We thought OJ was guilty but he got off". So who knows.

Declaration of interest: My club submitted arguing player ineligibility. A key paragraph in the NZF written decision was:

"At 9 May the (Northern League) Manager could have and ought to have considered the eligibility provisions in the General provisions and/or regulations and raised this with the club and relevant parties and to have considered and determined the point for matches prior to 9 May 2015. That did not occur. Essentially the manager did not consider the ineligibility of Mr Konusi for the period prior to 9 May 2015 and the penalty at the time it was raised with him... There is no impediment to that still occurring and it is in the interests of the integrity of the competition and of fair play that it occur".

100 % T.K.U should be relegated..