National League review and future

Sky TV coverage likely but someone (likely to be the clubs) will have to front up with $$$$$$. Have not heard any news on a sponser.

Interesting that Andy Martin was in the Phoenix/Wairarapa crowd last night. Wonder if it was anything ASBP related.

anyone got any actual deets on clubs struggling with the coin?

this appeared in the West's newsletter this week.

"June 29th

– National League Update

On the 29th June we have Football NZ visit us to look at

our facilities and have an update on our national league

application.

It will be a vital step in the path of providing the very

best standard of football for our young players. Our

elite pathway is becoming envied by other clubs

nationwide and over recent time Football NZ have been

spending time working at Ole with the our footballers.

Needless to say capital Football and now spending

more time at Ole and love the progress Western

Suburbs is making in developing players."

Can't say who is in jeopardy, but would be fair to say that West's continue to push their case that funding isn't an issue as they want their players to remain amateurs (required as us scholarships can't be awarded to professionals)

they might need to employ someone with better grammar

That last sentence about scholarships is not really accurate anymore either I don't think.

NCAA allow players to have a year between high school and College where they can do anything, including training with professionals.

Probably them all.. but I understand Team Wellington is the club.

The players seeking scholarship for themselves cannot be professionals.

I'm not sure that's true (but lack the time to check). I think there is now a 12 month window following finishing school in which you can participate in professional sport without affecting your eligibility for NCAA D1 soccer.

For example, players like Singh who is currently in the Phoenix setup would historically have been putting their eligibility in jeopardy but now are not (as I understand it). Now whether he could actually sign a professional contract and be paid or not I am not sure.

Anyway, it's far from straightforwards. Gone are the days where players who got a free pair of boots were putting their status in question.

Disclaimer: while I used to know my shark I am quite out of date on this stuff now, so do your own research if this might impact you.

http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/play-division-i-sports

The NCAA promotes amateurism to create a level playing field for all student-athletes. The young men and women who compete in college sports are students first, athletes second. If you want to compete in NCAA sports at a Division I school you must be an amateur athlete.

When you register with the NCAA Eligibility Center, you will be asked a series of questions about your sports participation to determine your amateur status.

More than 90 percent of student-athletes who register are automatically certified. In some instances, the NCAA Eligibility Center staff may need to gather additional information to evaluate your amateur status.

If you are enrolling at a Division I or II school for the fall semester, you may request an amateurism certification decision from the NCAA Eligibility Center on or after April 1 before your enrollment in college. If you are enrolling in college in the spring semester, you may request a final amateurism decision on or after October 1 before your enrollment in college.

View a step-by-step guide on requesting a final amateurism decision

In most sports, you may delay full-time college enrollment for one year after your expected high school graduation without impacting your eligibility. In tennis, you may delay enrollment for six months after your expected date of high school graduation, as long as you have not yet turned 20 years old. In men's ice hockey or skiing, you may be required to enroll full-time in college before you turn 21 to avoid impacting your eligibility.

The following activities may impact your amateur status:

Delaying your full-time college enrollment to play in organized sports competition

Congratulations on successfully Googling "NCAA amateurism". But you need to look into the rules for each sport, which are different.

Amateurism sounds like some kind of term that Andy Martin has made up.

the rules differ between the divisions the college operate in as well as the sport. No for example, I quoted above the rules for NCAA division 1 colleges. YMMV, if you were looking at a less top tier college scholarship.

Those weren't "the rules" that was just a webpage. "The rules" are as dry as an old biscuit and come in a manual about an inch thick.

can we work out if there IS an ASB Prem before we worry about eligibility :)

Fair point. 

Wests in to replace TeeDubs I reckon. Seems a bit poetic given the original TeeDubs formed to keep Ole Madrids out. 

I reckon TW will be in - just with a low budget model. We might even see some Wellington players in there..

Couldn't be worse than Feneridis.

porirua park would be a much nicer facility than Farringdon.

So when did/does TW cease to exist. 

Tee Dubs goes on

West keen for next expansion

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/83135362/Western-Suburbs-prepare-for-football-national-league-bid-next-year?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Is their a National league as we know it now after 2016/17 season.  No new action -  Last publication

From NZF Oct 2015:

Competitions Review 2015 – Key features
– Maximum of 10 two-year licences to be issued before December 2015 to cover 2016-17 & 2017-18 seasons
– Winter clubs from top leagues around New Zealand able to express interest
– Licenses only granted to clubs with national and youth league teams initially
– Applicants must meet set criteria in line with OFC and FIFA standards
– One season, 10-team, 30-round open competition the ultimate aim in 2018-19

The first sentence there says there's a league in 2017-18? After that, you're right, who knows.

 If yes I missed the press release.

So here we go again.   Another review and "consultation" with stakeholders regarding the future of the National competition.

How many times will this happen before NZF has the gonads to make a commonsense decision as to their premier competition.   Also included in the survey, which has been sent to all Clubs, is the women's league and the youth league.

The preferred option is the 9 month one with an entry fee of $90,000.   I can see clubs lining up to have a go at this!!   A big drawback for me, apart from the financials, is that the National League entities will be allowed to enter the Chatham Cup.   How to kill a competition.

Make sure your Club has both received this and will complete the survey.

When these new teams were added, last December, they (and the existing ones) were given two-year licences. So yes.

Interesting reading. Maybe light is starting to dawn on thick heads- paying for broadcast on sky is not the answer. Quality online streaming can reach the audience. You can't compete with European, or even A-League content - NZF should change the approach.

How about a completely radical approach -  let's acknowledge that to drive NZ football forward, we need to produce better younger footballers - maybe the way to do that is not with a peak competition for open ages - but to make the top tier about a series focused on Younger players - a nationwide competition with a peak age of say - 24. 

There are mirrors to this approach in other sports in NZ- look at what NZ Motorsport does with their top tier series - It's a development series focused on driver development. They manage to even drag in some hot young talent from Europe each summer- they seem to have got it right. That's not going to happen in football obviously, but the approach works well.

So why is the focus on a national competition about providing lifestyle employment for Mid-to-Late 20's journeymen? How will that ever help the all whites?

The competitions review was how we got Tasman and Suburbs - is there a new one going on or something?

It's easy to criticise NZF but there is no solution. Some people were saying a few pages back how Southern were given a license and then needed bailing out. Of course they were given a license! They represent football in a large part of the country. The fact is even we had the perfect structure for a national league, there just isn't going to be a lot of interest in it. My personal uneducated opinion is that the National League would work best as a quick competition played at the conclusion of the club season. Team Wellington's squad should simply be made up of the best 20 players who played for the local Wellington clubs throughout the season. That seemed to be the original model but NZF have gone away from this in recent seasons.

Young players need to learn how to play against tough, physical players which is what older players bring.

... I can't understand the whining and complaints coming 6 games into what has been the most competitive, closely fought, high-quality season I can remember in the current format.

<sarcasm>Yeah, I love going to watch a game where the old fellas kick the living daylights out of the more skillful youngsters to 'put them in their place'.</sarcasm>

TRS is setup solely to be a useful development series. It doesn't need age limits in the same way for this to be so. NZ Motorsport spent 25 years messing around looking for the right formula post F5000, till they came to the conclusion that World class won't be in NZ any more, and that you need to provide a local pathway and invest in young development.

The current nz driver success in Europe professional series is testimont to the value of that approach.

Interested in more about this consultation. Women's league mentioned at all? Seems it's being done behind closed doors this time?

Well, what do you think they are going to do in the Premier League? Or in National League North, for the matter? We need a physical national competition because football is a physical game. No point breeding technically proficient players if those players are not able to use their technical skills in tough leagues.

It's odd you call out the premier league - a league in which less than 35% of the players are domestic in origin, and a league in which an Domestic Manager has never won.

Perhaps to win in that league, you seem to need to import a large body of high skilled players who have developed under a very different mindset

Couple of posts at ITBOTN will cover this today. 

Part 1 - proposals for the mens integrated season

https://in-the-back-of-the.net/2016/12/02/nzfs-great-integration/