ASBP 2014/2015

When I looked into it earlier in the year, my understanding from what I found was that pokie money is distributed with the understanding that the franchise is an amateur one - it doesn't matter if they play against pro sides. 

They will be the Phoenix reserves. Why would we have a reserve team if players from our A-League squad can't play for them.

Glad to see that we will be playing at Newtown Park, as well.

The list of those responsible for its demise will be interesting ....

The whole amatuer thing I thought was to help young kiwis make it in pro footie via the US College system.  As I understand it NZF realise now that those who did make it (Ryan, Duncan, Simon, Tony, Michael etc) acheived it due to their ability not a US degree somewhat relaxing the false amatuer tag it always had.  No need for teams to hide player payments anymore.  Might help teams to move away from pokie money dependancy too.

Strong = fully professional. What have we got here? Amateur/shamateur. NZ is different. Very. Surely he realises that with our 7/8/9 team domestic league playing 14/15 games per season we're nothing like any of the top nations at the World Cup.

A reserve side is usually made up of the numbers 16 to 23 who are not appearing for the first team that weekend.   It is also there to give players a way back if they have been injured.  These would be professional players, not to be confused with those playing in the ASB league at present who are professional "coaches", not professional "players".

My question to the masses is, has the rule that prohibits professional players appearing in an amateur league unless they have stood down for a month, been changed.   I think it was Regulation 5.

Yep as far as I know they can come and go as they please

Stangely enough, as far as I can tell, neither the FIFA Article 2 nor the NZF Regulation 5 has been changed which would permit the coming and going that you allude to.

But , it WILL be ....

ie; if thats what they say today , its not what theyll say tomorrow ....

I see the draw is out for the ASB premiership. The league doesn't finish until 5th April. This will clash with the start of the winter season. You will find a number of leading Northern League clubs advice there players not to play in the ASB

With the Northern Premier League finishing within the next few weeks why didn't they schedule to start the ASB 2-3 weeks earlier to avoid this potential issue. I realise the ASB teams need 5-6 weeks preseason but this could have easily been achieved

This is again NZF not planning the seasons properly. Let's face it there is more money in the Northern League than the ASB premiership

I have to assume NZF have resolved the issue with the trusts to allow the Pheonix reserves in the league. I know when it was debated a few years ago that was a major stumbling block. They didn't like funding a league that had a professional team in it. From a football  prospective it's great they are in the league. I still don't like the Wanderers team in the league, I rather have Nelson or Manawatu there

Well you are probably going to get your wish next season.  Personally I'd rather see another Auckland based franchise, probably Auckland United given they already have a youth team playing.  Better bet, resource wise than revisiting a failed area or expanding into an area where it appears they are unsure whether they could realistically enter a team.  Just my opinion.

There seem to be three things here.

1. Pro-Am Stand Down

I haven't looked closely at this, but my understanding is that FIFA either expressly permit, or knowingly turn a blind eye to, local regulations on this point. It's what allows MLS players to play in the leagues below, and I also believe the FFA have regs that overrule the default stand down.

What I'm told is that this has been blocked over the years by the ASBP clubs, not by FIFA rules. A change in management at NZF (the departure of FvH) is what has now all of a sudden made this possible.

2. Pokie Money 

The pokies money thing is a second issue. Gaming machine cash is only for amateur sports. I have to trust that NZF have squared this away with the gaming trusts, because otherwise it's a ticking timebomb. Cross your fingers.

3. College eligibility

I suspect nobody has really turned their mind to this, but there is now a 1 year "do whatever you like" rule in NCAA, so at least for a year after high school players can turn pro and still maintain their eligibility. 

Would be smart for NZF to engage with people who know those eligibility rules to see what, if any, effect the change to the league might have on young players College dreams. But I bet they haven't and won't.

Whatever the answer though, it will affect a very small group of youngsters. And the NCAA rules are so notoriously porous it probably won't actually impact on anyone.

NCAA have just allowed 5 of the larger conferences to confer cash from the image rights those players generated back to the players/students. Thus you can effectively say that amateurism in the college game, is largely done and dusted.

That allowance applied specifically to certain sports as I understand it.

The rules are very complex, and to a certain extent arbitrary in that some schools ignore them/bend them/do what they want. 

A number of years ago a lad from Wellington had his scholarship rescinded because his school found out that his central league club had paid him expenses money each week. So it can happen.

Smithy wrote" I haven't looked closely at this, but my understanding is that FIFA either expressly permit, or knowingly turn a blind eye to, local regulations on this point. It's what allows MLS players to play in the leagues below, and I also believe the FFA have regs that overrule the default stand down.

What I'm told is that this has been blocked over the years by the ASBP clubs, not by FIFA rules. A change in management at NZF (the departure of FvH) is what has now all of a sudden made this possible."

It's been my experience in the past that local rules apply, until something goes wrong and I am very surprised to hear that FIFA turns a blind eye to local rules - that is certainly foreign to my dealings with rules in the past.   Protests and appeals are when FIFA rules are quoted and NZF has no option but to go with them.   Having being involved in these sorts of disputes in the past I can tell you that Clubs are very quick to quote FIFA if and when they need to.

NZF needs to rewrite Regulation 5 (which I can't see them being able to do as it would put them in dispute with FIFA).   If they don't, I can see all sorts of crap happening.

I would really like to be proved wrong in this.

I do bow to your significantly greater experience. All I'll point out is that this sort of thing does go on in other countries, so I figure there must be a way.

And bball.

The national league is already pandering to the Phoenix so why not stay bent over and let everyone else have a go,  After the Phoenix of course

Of the league would not need to finish so late if there were only 8 teams like last year.....

Could the staff at NZF please explain why the ASB Premiership website has not been updated with the 2014/15 season draw.

This draw was available two weeks ago, what other jobs have they had that the army of NZF boffins can't copy the details to the web master.

We wonder why this Competition is so badly promoted without a true stand alone sponsor. Don't need to look hard to find out the answer do we. 

Don't think the ASBP website is going to be operating standalone this season. New plans for media coverage apparently

Its never been a mystery ....except to NZF....

New website for NZF by the sounds of it. 

I do ,  so look forward to 2015.....

Tweet of the Week should have been the "I Smith picks up spilled shit..." shurely?

[see post #1667 Phoenix Reserves]

has the nix reserves game been moved to Sunday? I have it on Saturday on my draw. 

Yup Sunday

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=1323

dispite the concerns, think NZF did a good job for R1. Just need to website to be updated.

The quailty of tweeting must be poor if the assistant to the senior intern can pick up tweet of the week.

You're easily pleased 2ndBest. 

Website's still under construction so please give me a contact and I'll give them a hurry up. 

But then again it's NZF with lots of invisible staff who can't/won't/don't answer or return phone calls.

Steven Upfold has been brilliant to deal with since he got there. Reach out to him.

Perhaps I just don't like to be a miserable sad sack. 

Well I did say the website needed doing. Understand testing for it is starting in a few days. 

Yeah fair call I mean there's no need to for the website to be up and running by the time the league starts is there

As long as its up some time this century then thats ok.

Merrick and Morgan just got to OK the content first Gordy

and I present to you, a miserable sad sack ^^

Dont be too hard on yourself boy at least Vader likes you

Did any newspapers run this? It's a very simple, tidy and cool way to wrap up the round.