Team Taranaki Announcement
Central League Status
This morning (March 1, 2018) Team Taranaki Board member Nathan Hill informed both Capital Football and Central Football that the province would not be represented in the 2018 Central League.
He wrote that at the Annual General Meeting of Team Taranaki, held in New Plymouth last night, “a collective decision was taken… to withdraw from the 2018 Central League competition due to a chronic player shortage…”
He said it was not viable to enter a team at Central League level.
The Board had exhausted all available possibilities to address the player shortage issue but a solution was unattainable.
“This is an extremely disappointing outcome for both Team Taranaki and the wider Taranaki football community. Despite the obvious disappointment from all of those involved, the Board believes it has made the correct decision both in the circumstances outlined and in the best interest of the organisation,” he wrote.
At last night’s meeting Head Coach Ian McGrath said “it pains me, but we have genuinely exhausted all the options. We are currently 10 players short and we are four weeks away from the start of the season. The player pool available in Taranaki simply isn’t deep enough to support a team playing at Central League level and with seven key experienced local players unavailable this season due to a combination of work and personal commitments, retirement and injury it has proved impossible to replace them.”
Team Taranaki would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved for their considerable effort and positive contributions in difficult circumstances.
Team Taranaki will release a statement to media after individual clubs who have supported the combined team concept are informed.