Mainland Premier League (Part 2)

Uni 1, Ferrymeadbays 1

Plenty of comings and goings in the Clearance's (tranfers) page now.

More interesting is the draw that is released for the old Division 1, now called the Canterbury Championship. 

Only 6 teams entered, so basically makes it identical to last year minus Cash Tech and Bays. So my prediction of any old team wanting to get in there was proved false. 

Burwood, Parklands, Waimak, Selwyn, Chch Utd, and Nomads are the only ones. 

Hornby?

No Hornby or Hurunui it seems.

Yes Hornby was Division 1, did Hurunui win Div 2? Therefore they must have turned down the offer to go into Championship.

I think Halswell won Div 2 - but considering Burwood is in the Championship - wouldnt matter where you finished, I guess it was a matter of whether you wanted to be there.

No need to win any division to enter this league. Eg. Mid canterbury could have entered after being out of div1 for a few years now but hasn't.  That leaves it open for any club keen to have a serious crack. 

Of course, I did know that. It's been a long day...

Heard Coastal beat Nomads 8-0 in pre season game at weekend.....Interesting result given each teams ambitions this year 

CTFC U17 1 - Chch Utd QL 1.

What ambitions do Nomads have?

Be lucky to be as competitive as last seasons. Will be without a main stay for a few big games in April. 

You know as well as everyone Scottie the ambitions will be to get promo

I guess we now have 3 MPL teams doing this now then if the rumours are to be believed, hard to compete if your any other club! So that would leave FC, Western, Halswell, Universities and Nelson that do not "pay" players?

Damn straight, I fudgeing hate it. 

Proud to say we don't do it tho, there is some sponsorship deal if players go out and find a sponsor the club and the player can be rewarded however we don't pay players as far as I'm aware.

Totally agree and dead against it. From what I've heard this isn't the case and that is horse's mouth too. Which horse is the one to bet on?

Catergorically , we do not pay our players

We have had 2 players who were paid for their employee role with the club, not drawing wages to turn out WPL/MPL

Neither are currently with the club. 

Does a 'Win' bonus count as paying a player?

Wow. Only 6 teams for div1. Should be a competitive league you would have to think. Will be a bit boring playing only 5 other teams in a season tho.

One that the player has gone out to organise themselves, which goes from a business to them and the club?  Doesn't sound like it. 

Could there be a late entry???

I thought Pap-Redwood were going to enter a side, was surprised not to see them when the draw came out

Understand that Papanui Redwood had one the their teams move to another club so decided to stay were they are do to their playing depth (or lack of). 

For me it just seems as a viable excuse a club can make to validate their claims they don't "pay" players. I'd like to know if these potential sponsors are actually aware that the money they are "sponsoring" is in fact going straight into player A's pocket, I'd find it hard to believe that they actually do!

The club isn't paying players whether you or anyone else thinks it's a viable excuse or not. 

Now wether third party funded win payments are kosher is a good question for any amateur competition. I'm sceptical that no matter how convuluted  the route is  to the player,  $ incentives in a nominally amateur league is 'fair play'. 

I don't have a problem if a player goes off and sorts out $ sponsorship for themselves, or a team from a party outside of a certain club. If it is showing initiative then what is the issue? If $ transfers from Company A to Player/Team B and bypasses Club C completely then Club C can't be moaned at.

I would even imagine that if Club C is very big and successful, then a smart player/team will say to Company A that we are part of a successful team that may lead to large coverage for the company. Seems smart to me

What happens if NZ Government department (IR)D comes knocking on Company A's, Player/Team B's door and asks for an explanation of where this extra income has gone to/come from and has it been declared? I have very little knowledge of tax stuff, but what are the ramifications of receiving sponsorship or even expenses $ from either a company or a club (which is probably a company in itself). Do they have to be declared by a player as income? Would many players do this?

Not poo-pooing the idea, but could be a legitimate concern not only amateur football teams but probably the hundreds of 1st teams in rugby, netball, hockey etc across the country.

heard some sad news about KB today so swift recovery hopefully Keith. 

Big match up today - with Emma Procter and Gareth Turnbull getting married. All the best.

Several teams out of town this weekend for friendlies  - will be interested to hear the results.

Nomads 2 Halswell 3. Not any sort of goal keeping by the stand in 2nd [maybe lucky to get another game] Nomads GK for the last 2 Halswell goals. Halswell had ASB booked and didn't use it.

Uni beat Western 4 1. Not sure what you could read into pre-season but Uni looked particularly good. If that is the best Western have to offer then they will struggle, didn't really threaten at all with Uni dominating for the majority of the game. Still early days but picking FC, Halswell and Western to be in a dogfight come season end

Cashmere Technical 7 Parklands 0 . I hear that a player Coastal are chasing scored a screamer.