Central League

Aren't the state leagues in Aus 'amateur' as well? What's the difference to sending Kosta to whatever club he went to back in the day

Aren't there aleague pros playing in the lower state leagues atm? Think I saw Matt Sim playing for WSW npl side.

don't think anything in the Central league regulations forbids it. 

Is not the phoenix an Australian club that plays some of its matches away from Aust?

If so then all players that are registered with the phoenix need an itc to play for an nz club.

Maybe someone needs to check to see if the itc has been issued for the likes of gulley and co

I think there is also a fifa reg re players going from a pro to amateur then back to pro contract

I think that changed a year or two ago. Phoenix are a NZ club. 

State NPL clubs are pro according to FFA and FIFA.

Why don't Nix rescind their contracts, have them play Central league, train with the Nix and then if they are good enough to actually get some first team football offer them a youth contract - or just call them up when the injury and suspension crises hit?

"if a player re-registers as a professional within 30 months of being reinstated as an amateur, his new club will be pay training compensation"

Nix paying training compensation to WU/nix - meh. 

"A pro may be loaned to another club on the basis of a written agreement between him and the clubs concerned. Any loan is subject to the rules of transfer including training compensation and the solidarity mechanism" 

FIFA regulations here

Just get them to wear wigs and prosthetic noses and play under fake identities. Simple stuff really. Weta can probably provide some good disguises for a nominal fee

If we didn't have people in the elite amateur game in it to further their own interests (even if just to look like a Johnny Big Tomatoes) then our top local league would be a sharke social league. 

I was under the impression it was 3 pro players, then someone added 6 next season.

This is quite different to 3 youth players and 6 youth players.

More detail needed to debate. 

But I doubt many teams would want to face 6 senior Nix players in one winter club team.

Not really a matter of what any CL club wants or doesn't want. This is NZF/FIFA territory.

fixed

You can chop them down and welcome them to the Central League. Wait till they come up against the likes of a Barry Lewis, then they will wish they still had pro contracts

People dig there heals in because clubs are run by volunteers who want to win football matches. Seriously unless you have given up your own personal and family time to help a club move forward you won't know. Then you have the nix come in and all they care about is their own interests and players that they want to develop ( which yes is a good thing for player and NZF) but detrimental to the amateur football league. If it's about development then spread them amongst the CL clubs. Wests running good programme so is Olympic and Napier must be developing players well too. If they cared about players development and not just themselves they would look seriously at other options....

Not true. CF said that NZF do not want any involvement as it is a local competition run under CF rules and regulations. CF decision. 

I think that CF may find themselves in some smelly stuff if they were to thumb their noses at NZF, who have a rule (or regulation) which roughly states that you can't do anything contrary to their (NZF) rules or regs.

It seems that the kerfuffle is over for the time being anyway.  The information I have been given is that Gulley is no longer a contracted Phoenix player, he stood down the month after his last game, and Wellington Utd have been told that the plans to bring pro's into the game this year is a no go.   At the meeting, at least five Central League clubs were against the proposal, 2 were for it, 2 were on the fence and the other did not comment.

Fair point. But there are times when that self interest can be detrimental to the overall interest of football in NZ, and this feels like one of those times. 

Tear up contract? Probably more likely that his contract had expired/lapsed.

why?

Harsh, maybe. The truth is sometimes.

Can you give me any recent examples of players from New Zealand (or any other football backwater will do) who made a professional career playing the game but were not professionals by the age of 20?

By recent I mean in the last ten years. 

I'll give you one example for free: Ben Sigmund. And another: Manny Muscat. But I don't think there are "many".

Feverish is right.

"The overall interests of football in NZ" is very much a question of perspective.

Does it mean the greater good of the All Whites? The Phoenix? 

What about the greater good of amateur club football where the vast majority of time, effort, players and money is spent?

This proposal from the Phoenix is essentially "accept an imbalance, an unfairness, for us to play pros because in the long run it will be better for us, and that is better for you" but what I don't think they have considered is two key things: 1. why is it better in the long run for the people they are asking it of and 2. what about the short term detriment (unfair leagues, imbalanced rules)?

Capital Football and New Zealand Foodball have rightly, in my opinion, made some significant concessions to the Phoenix in recent times. Allowed them to bend the rules for the greater good of the professional and men's elite forms of the game. 

Those changes have, to date, not had any measurable impact on chaps who go out on a Saturday to have a run around for fun.

But now, the Phoenix seek to extend that rule-bending into the realm of the enthusiastic amateur punter. Blokes who (some of them anyway) pay to play the game. I think that is pretty on the nose and they should really think about it from the other side of the fence once in a while.

Maybe they have and I just haven't seen it. But that is how it appears to me.

I've just been reading through everyones comments. This is laughable...
Utd being the only team to have pros??? Come on!
I think they would just rather do it above board unlike other clubs that pay some of their players $500+ a week for 'coaching'. Then again, some weeks they might do 1 hour so I guess they are just really well paid coaches and not 'pros'??

What do the youth players of other A League clubs do over winter? Do they play in NPL sides?

some good points there. It's an interesting discussion (unusual for the nix offseason!).

What is the solution then? The nix not signing NZ kids to pro contracts? Some sort of nix player draft for central league teams? A limit of one pro player per team so the nix are forced to loan to multiple clubs? 

Nix sign kids for one year contracts. Transfer to Wellington United when they expire, like Gulley, and re-sign after the winter season.

Lets say Petone finish bottom of the league and Wellington United finish second to last. Is it fair that Petone, or anybody else for that matter, be relegated if Wellington United have professionals?

I like the draft system, but it would never work.

Surely that is the solution? Teams can have X amount of professionals under the age of X if they are also eligible for the NZ national team.

Also, what more do the club want to see from Gulley? (my view is that he has shown enough to get a longer term deal)