In The Zone - The End

Seems positive, whoever in NZ football decided to bring in an outsider needs congratulating. Bit of outside perspective / politics free perspective was definitely required.

I believe Gareth M was quoted on a recent pod as saying the Phoenix were "guests" in an Australian competition. That bit jumped out at me. e.g. as in guests being welcome long as they behave.

Hmmm I'm not so sure I read it that way. I think its more 'You are not allowed to come to this party but we have thrown you a bone and gotten you an invite and dispensation to come to the party so you are here as a guest'

I think the Phoenix sense they can get a reserve side now because Andy Martin is new in the job and they'll figure out what they do with it afterwards...

What 2ndBest said. I know what you are saying JD, but the Nix want to have control over players they identify with potential.  

When you have guests around do you not look after them as best as you can? Judging by the hoops that the Nix have had to jump through, I dont think too much of Australian hospitality. Here Nix, have some crap referees almost every game and be grateful.

EXACTLY!!!!

At no point is anyone going to say or believe 'This is going to be a complete WOFTAM for us'

how does the stand down work or not work? I thought it was playing in two different confeds and pro/amateur therefore...?

have we got special dispensation?

It's an NZF rule apparently. So they can rewrite the regs to not have a standdown period if they like.

New to the YF forum. Beer Keg Cam - "Live". Exploring a new point of view, the BKC follows the life span of a full keg as it finds it's way through another Podcast recording session.

I enjoyed Pod 114 (except for the quality), Well done for getting Martin in to answer some of the questions that have been thrown around for some time now.

Not to blow wind up your a$$s Ive only been listening since PodCast 110 :( .

Yeah this part worries me. 

But thinking about it, what does the pokies care if other teams are amateur as long as the team they're giving funding to is 'amateur'. I confess I don't know the rules for pokie funding very well in this regard. the way people have been talking funding is given based on the league being amateur, but on reflection is this even actually the case? 

I think it's also to do with college scholarship - you're not eligible if you've ever played in a "professional" league (I think)

Yes that is the other part to it.

Cheers RR, so it won't bugger that up. 

I wonder then if it is the same with pokie funding - can play against them, but not be pro yourself. 

You'd have to assume so since (some of the) nix reserves would be pro. 

Wrong thread

Duplicate post

This is also my understanding.

As for the question about how long it's taken. They grey area is the affect it might have on amateur status, not from a FIFA perspective but from a gaming machine charitable trust perspective.

The Auckland City-led lobby against changing the rules is/was very concerned that their golden egg layer might get plucked if the rules are changed to suit the Feenix.

This, like the gaming machine question, is more theory than fact.

Plus now at NCAA you have your one year gap allowance where you can pretty much do what you want. So the risk is reduced.

Yeah, the way both the American colleges and our own pokie trusts/DIA enforce their own rules is pretty fucking arbitrary anyway.

Under the current decentralised pokie funding model for the ASB Prem I would assume the Nix Reserves being in there would not cause any issues for any other franchise whatsoever.

If the Nix Reserves can get pokie funding themselves though, when the team is obviously going to include fully professional players from time to time, that's fucking appalling and I give up (but only to the same extent JD has given up, which is not at all, not even taking a short break).

I would also assume that the Nix reserves being in there would put paid to any notion of a centralised pokie funding model for the ASB Prem which a few of us have been advocating on here as a way of making better (and fairer) use of the limited funds available to the game. I'm sure Andy Martin probably hasn't even started to get his head around the extent to which pokies fund the game here (and particularly the ASB Prem). I hope he's fully aware of some of the potential consequences of going down this path and is engaging with the relevant stakeholders.

Fortunately, pokie trusts are a bit in the political gun these days and don't wield the same ridiculous power they once did. They're unlikely to be stupid on the matter. At least you'd hope not.

Feverish - is this just speculation or do you know this to be true? I cannot get my head round how the Nix could get pokie money unless they can keep the funding for amateurs and pros completely separate (separate legal entity perhaps?). This is where the distinction between having an amateur youth development team (pokies = yes!) and a professional reserve team (pokies = no!) becomes really impt. We're trying to have a bit of both.

That said, when you've already got racing clubs getting stake money from pokies and rugby unions getting bucket loads of cash what's just another exception to the rules? Doesn't make it right though.

I guess the upside of the Nix getting some pokie funds would be that it means no other franchise would need to worry about their own position.

Can totally understand ACFC's angst, the presence of the Nix in the league as a professional team will put the spotlight on what other teams are doing are whether they are actually amateur or (semi) professional. It's a bit hard for them to argue against the Nix coming in for that reason though, unless they pretty much admit they are paying players (because otherwise, what's the problem?).

Must be interesting discussions in Andy Martin's office...

By the way JV, where did you get $1.5m from? More like $500k approx per annum going to ACFC from pokies, and another $200k approx to Central Utd.