Dinamo Chris wrote: StolenThought wrote:
If they make it a 8 team league, they will play 3 rounds instead of the normal 2 round, so 3 extra games than a 10 team league season: 8 team 21 games, 10 team 18 games. And they may relegate bottom team if United fail to qualify and have the promoted team of Southern/Canterbury/Nelson winner/nominated club get promoted.
The costs for sides to play in a Southern League will be higher than this year. And that changes depending on how many travel games there are.
Lots of uncertainty at the moment.
Like: Can clubs afford to play Southern League
Can clubs afford not to play Southern League
Will it be a Southern League or back to MPL/SPL.
Will Nelson Suburbs stay in the region or look to move to Central League
How may/does that affect other Nelson area clubs?
Is there relegation this year?
Is there promotion this year?
What sort of time frame is being looked at for decisions being made?
From what I hear and also what I have been told from the Suburbs camp about them moving to the Central League that is highly unlikely to happen.
Northern and Central Leagues going to be played next season so Southern League, in some form, must happen to maintain the standard between both islands.
Cash Tech, Coastal, ChCh and Nelson Suburbs have shown that they can compete at a higher level in recent seasons both in the National League and or the Chatham Cup, with other clubs like Nomads and Ferrymead Bays showing improvement in the last couple of seasons. Also, some clubs have set up academies which are now leading to many more local players now playing in the Southern League.
I am old enough to remember the debate when the 'old' Southern League was canned after some clubs voted to end it, again due to costs, with a stupid 'all in or all out' vote killing the SL, with many of the clubs that voted to stop the league not having any intention to seek play in the league via the promotion system, this was back in the late 1990's.
Back in the day there was even a travelling Division 2 for Southern League, split into a North section - for Canterbury and South Canty clubs, and a South section - Otago and Southland clubs, with promotion / relegation between the two Division's. This was pre-Federations, so the Nelson / Marlborough clubs played in the Central League,
The overall standard of the leagues that replaced the SL was not great, while both the Northern and Central League continued to be played and arguably getting stronger, with northern clubs then enticing the better players from the south to play across Cooks Strait.
Traveling costs have always been an issue but if there are enough clubs that wish to pay to enter the Southern League, then let them - even it is only 8 teams initially, with the remainder that have elected not to then enter play in their local leagues.
Surely NZ Football should be continuing to assist with travelling costs to keep growing the game in the South Island.
