Mainland Premier League

Boom! Hot off the press is that Uni got some points back, some taken off others.

End result is Uni win Div 1 and promoted to MPL!

You heard this goss here first!

"pending further appeals"

is there more legalese on the way?

the cream has risen to the top!

University last in the MPL in the 2002, the first season the leagues was played. Their record was played 22 won 5 drew 3 lost 14, 30 goals for and 63 against, for 18 points..

Was the first and only time was a 12 team league and finished 11th and were relegated along with Woolston WMC 0 points. Interestingly  ChCh United finished 9th on 25 points. With Cashmere Wanderers winning the play-offs against ChCh Technical, who finished ninth in the MPL on 18 points, to gain promotion.

TOL invites went out today (for Chch players)

it's at Cuthbert's (hopefully using decent size field)

yes, all start at 11.00 on Sunday

"bit late", well there's a story!

I think APFA players can be included, no idea if any are going.

"What are they looking for..." There is players from different regions all trialling together plus someone from outside the region oversees the selection process.

Probably viewed most but only in game situation in July. Simply put the criteria to be picked for NTC is not nessacarily the same as what me might use to determine the "best player". There is a clear example for the Boys D.O.B. 2000 where an absolute monster of a player missed the cut but is (IMO) the single "best" or at least "the most important" player.

again, someone from outside the region oversees the selection. There is probably more than 1 reason for this.

no NTC without FTC. Or accredited provider. I think that is only APFA in the South Island.

$. Yeah an ongoing concern. Mainland do provide some assistance with the Scorching Goal Fund. Solutions to this are very diddifcult.

August 2103

Dear Club delegates

New Robbie’s Division 1 Champions 2013 (provisional)

Mainland Football has recently investigated player eligibility at both Universities and Christchurch

United clubs.  As a result of our findings and the subsequent decisions made by Mainland Football,

the points table is affected and as a result Universities win the Robbies Division 1 for 2013. This is

however provisional pending further (possible) appeals.   

Christchurch United

Mainland Football has determined, that on at least four occasions during the 2013 season,

Christchurch United breached NZF regulation 5.13 by having more than the three permissible guest

players (required to be named on the team sheet).

As a result;

o Christchurch United have been deducted 2 competition points and three goals

o Waimak receive two additional competition points

o FC Twenty 11 Bombers receive two additional competition points

Universities

Earlier in the season Universities were deducted 13 competition points for playing an ineligible player

on five separate occasions.  At the time Universities were not able to prove their case that the player

in question only played on four of those occasions.  The Universities club has now been able to

provide Mainland Football with the team sheet from the match in question (a win against Selwyn

13 April) and after checking, Mainland Football is satisfied that the team sheet is (1) original (2) the

ineligible player was not listed on the team sheet and (3) the signature of the referee is in fact that of

the official for the match.  

As a result Universities will receive the 3 competition points and the two goals, the competition table

will be changed accordingly.

Universities finish up with 28 competition points, Christchurch United 27 points, Waimak 25 points.

See full points table below.

Pos Team P W D L F A GD PTS

1 Universities- (POOL 1) 14 9 1 0 32 3 29 28

2 Christchurch United- (POOL 1) 14 8 0 5 34 16 18 27

3 Waimak United- (POOL 1) 14 9 1 4 33 21 12 25

4 Mid Canterbury FC- (POOL 1) 14 6 4 4 31 31 0 22

5 CTFC Turtles- (POOL 1) 14 5 2 6 18 18 0 20

6 Hornby United- (POOL 1) 14 4 1 8 17 33 -16 16

7 FC TWENTY 11 Bombers- (POOL 1) 14 3 3 7 23 30 -7 15

8 Selwyn UFC Div 1- (POOL 1) 14 0 4 10 14 50 -36 4

On the basis of these decisions made, Universities are now Robbies Division 1 winners.  As stated,

Mainland Football must assume that further appeals may be pending in which case, Universities are

provisional Division 1 winners.  The final confirmation of this status cannot be known until such a time

that all appeal processes are concluded.  

I must say that it has not been easy for Mainland Football having to deal with these matters and

make such decisions.  We can only follow our regulations to ensure we make the appropriate

decisions.  

We will certainly be amending some regulations for 2014.  In particular we will require all clubs to

submit team sheets to Mainland Football in the week following the played match.  We also reiterate

the importance of clubs ensuring they know the status of each player on a team sheet.  

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Colin Grant

Congrats to Universities good luck for next season in MPL you guys deserve a chance up there. 

Wow there going to ask for team cards to actually be sent in! Rocket science not. Bet the cards that are issued to the clubs don't come pre-paid with stamps. One of the reasons they were canned across the board in the first place was the cost of postage. One of the reasons you had to pay to enter teams originally was to cover things like the cost of postage, go figure :-{

NTC Revenue Gatherer. 50 kids x 2 weeks @ $455.00  a session(IIRC)

"Scout Properly is not difficult". Yes it is. Everyone has an opinion on who is deserving to be in. These same opinion holders invariably think they should be the ones doing the scouting. The margins can then be compressed further into, My Kids and the Kids I coach. Even a cursory glance at the history of Junior Rep Football show us this.

The FDO's "comfy seats" may in fact be running FTC groups. It is therefore most likely that even with "open source" entry to NTC / TOL the FTC players have a better rate of selection because they are known. Add in the $ and the self interest that comes invariably with it and it will not help easy scouting of players. There is also the inescapable fact that FTC is coaching the very "skills" that are most desirable for NTC. Volunteer Club Coaches may not be.

Some NTC groups are poor. Given only NZF coaches view the sessions that is an interesting summation of the merits of some the paying customers. I've heard the same accusation leveled at both the School of Football and FTC groups.

I'm looking forward to seeing how uni goes in MPL next year. Good on them for building up a quality squad and long may it last.

Delighted for the Uni lads, been head and shoulders above the rest this year and there record shows that. Great to see a club worked hard from the ground up and with a plan to gain promotion suceed. Well done Uni

Is it just me that finds it a little strange that when it was ruled that University and Waimak breached rules they were docked three points per game but ChCh United only loose 2 points over 4 games.

Well done Uni !

Also puzzled by the deduction of 2 points over 4 games - no idea how that works unless two of these four were a draw (ie lose the 1 point  gained for those matches. In return opposing team should then ordinarily receive 3 points as match should be recorded as a win to them ?

Anyhow - good to see Uni where they belong.

Interesting graph on the Uni facebook site. Have you ever seen a table like this?

A League uses them on their website. Not out of the ordinary, shows how a team tracks against all opposition round by round. Uni's obviously has a couple of S bends. I note the mighty Rams haven't updated their website yet. 

This is from the ChCh Utd website -

* However, a cruel twist could remain in the tail, as Mainland Football have decided for a 2nd time to review an appeal from Universities (who have already had points restored previously), as they plead their case to be forgiven for playing unregistered players earlier in the season. Any further points re-awarded to Universities could position them as league winners, and with a legitimate breach of competition rules earlier in the season, this would be a highly controversial decision if Mainland were to rule in their favour.

Talks about Uni committing a "legitimate breach" as if such a thing existed, while making no mention of the fact they lost the title through their own breach. Lmao at that one, next year their colours are going to be blue shirts, blue shorts and red faces :)

That was posted before the last announcement that Uni had got their points back

Stories from The Press today: 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/sport/club-sport/9043195/Mainland-Football-crackdown-on-referee-abuse

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/sport/9043194/Universities-rise-open-to-challenge

Anyone have any ideas as to how universities will go in the Mpl next year? Hoping a new team in the league will provide more competition and to not have another fc20 like this year

FIFA Under 21 World Cup: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/9042788/Capital-to-miss-out-on-World-Cup-features

above link from the Wellington Dom. Will be interested to see if Christchurch is a venue as heard that the submission from the Christchurch City Council was a bit half assed, with the training pitches that listed included Centennial Park and Ferrymead Park.

Hopefully we get games here but if we miss out maybe be a surprise.     

Reading the preview on the Mainland website for this weekend and noticed this -

Cashmere Technical only need a point to wrap up the title against Coastal Technical but will be looking for a good win as they build up to their ASB Chatham Cup semi-final against Wellington Olympic next Saturday. Coastal have yet to win against their rivals with the game also doubling as a Hurley Challenge Shield game. Technical are unbeaten in their last eight PFL games and are six goals away from setting a new goal scoring record for a 21 game season.Head to head: Played 5: Cashmere Technical 3 Wins, Draws 2, Coastal Spirit 0 

Pretty sure these two sides have played more than 5 games over the past 3 seasons (including this one) and pretty sure I remember Coastal defeating Cashmere at Linfield Park in the last game of the season last year or is the head to head limited to certain games i.e. at the home teams venue?

Coastal Technical the next merger in Christchurch apparently.