I think you're on a hiding to nothing if you want clubs to give up spots in leagues for "respect". Similar to if my job tried to pay me in experience. Its nice in theory but not gonna happen.
I've seen a couple of Rapa and United games and yes, they have approached it differently. Rapa has a bit of a head start though, given they were able to hold onto their academy where United couldn't really. Guess I personally feel that respect and results are closely tied together. I doubt United are going out of their way to "disrespect" anyone and are doing their best with the cards they've been dealt. I'm also sure this season has gone worse than they envisaged when making the decision to stay in Central League.
Team Taranaki is a completely different kettle of fish, no point comparing apples and oranges. Representative side vs club rebuild. Irrelevant.
Your examples don't make sense to me. If I got hired for a job I had no capability to complete, do I have a moral obligation to let my employer know?
The only irrelevant part of the Taranaki example is the rep side part. They had a spot in the League. Im sure if they had an open training they could have got 12 or 13 players along of a quality that would not be competitive. They couldn't however get a squad together that would be able to compete strongly so they took the option of not taking the spot.
Yeah, wasn't overly clear with my job comparison. Its completely unrealistic to expect someone to work for no pay. Just like it is completely unrealistic to expect a side to pull out of a league out of "respect" for the league. That's all I was saying. In theory, it can be a win-win situation but it doesn't tend to happen that way in practicality, in my experience.
Right, but TT don't now have to go away and build a team to compete from scratch, and win 6 promotions to get back to the stage they want to be, they aren't a club. I'm sorry, but I really don't see the parallel, the organisations have completely different goals. One was looking for short term results, the other wants long term sustainability. If TT get relegated then they're no worse off than if they pulled out - they disintegrate and go back to playing for club sides in the Naki - but for Wellington United relegation to Cap Prem is a far, far more desirable outcome than Cap 5. The consquences of withdrawal are completely different, so the withdrawals can't really be compared.
To extend your metaphor - the boss hired me when I could do the job, and circumstances almost entirely out of my control have meant I can't perform up to scratch right now, which my boss is completely aware of. I'm under no obligation to do anything except sit there and accept my paycheck if he's happy with that (and Capital Football don't appear to be making any noise about this).
I agree it would be lovely to have 10 competitive teams in Central League, but don't expect clubs to step out of the way to let that happen if its going to directly negatively impact them cos you're gonna be disappointed most of the time.