We need to talk about David

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of scholarships or other financial assistance they offer prospective students, since there’ll be plenty of promising young sportspeople whose families can’t hope to meet the fees.

Which raises the question, what level of support is on offer today for Academy fees? Does the Football For All programme extend to these more expensive options?

Maybe in another thread but did we ever get for details on why we didn’t get into the OFC league? Lots of talk straight after but it’s all quiet now 

Simon B

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of scholarships or other financial assistance they offer prospective students, since there’ll be plenty of promising young sportspeople whose families can’t hope to meet the fees.

Which raises the question, what level of support is on offer today for Academy fees? Does the Football For All programme extend to these more expensive options?

This is an answer i got from the club after someone else had asked a similar question hope it answers your query.

"When do players stop paying?
Traditionally, Phoenix Academy players stop paying once they progress into one of our reserve sides, typically this means they have progressed into either one of the Men’s or Women’s Central League sides.

Scholarships for promising players:
Yes, we do provide scholarships, particularly for highly promising players who may be scouted from out of town. These are generally assessed on a family’s financial need.

No barriers to entry policy:
Similar to Olé, we have a strong commitment to ensuring that financial circumstances never prevent a talented player from attending our programme. We operate a “no barriers to entry” policy and will always find a way to support the right players. To help with this, we’ve established an Academy Development Fund, which is dedicated exclusively to creating opportunities for young people. Contributions can come from within the club and from the wider public."

Not a whisper

mykey

Maybe in another thread but did we ever get for details on why we didn’t get into the OFC league? Lots of talk straight after but it’s all quiet now 

Could that be due to the legal process not being competed yet? Maybe the Nix havent received the satisfactory answer about why the werent included?

I, like you, Aucklandphoenix, do not have these answers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was never fully revealed why the Nix’s bid failed.
This article lists the members of the selection committee and their experience 

https://www.friendsoffootballnz.com/2025/10/23/the-five-men-who-ranked-the-applicants-for-the-new-ofc-professional-league/

We could have had the 3rd best bid of all the teams and still missed out. The biggest problem is the format limiting it to 2 NZ teams when there are 3 clearly deserving of a spot.

South Melbourne being there instead  is a travesty. The league won't have cut through in Australia and SMFC are a terrible choice if you want to get Australia interested since they're such a widely disliked club.

mykey

Maybe in another thread but did we ever get for details on why we didn’t get into the OFC league? Lots of talk straight after but it’s all quiet now 

They scored fewer points than the other two New Zealand teams once the submitted documents were assessed. They were told their score and where it was arrived at the week after the announcement, but have offered no comment since then.

andrewvoerman

mykey

Maybe in another thread but did we ever get for details on why we didn’t get into the OFC league? Lots of talk straight after but it’s all quiet now 

They scored fewer points than the other two New Zealand teams once the submitted documents were assessed. They were told their score and where it was arrived at the week after the announcement, but have offered no comment since then.

all well and good to have a scoring system, but when it's rigged to favour AFC because Auckland has already been decided as the location of one of the hubs and then a SI team has a massive advantage over yet another NI team. Not knowing what the metrics being scored against is the nuisance part. But I doubt these will ever truely be revealed as it would be more celar as to how heavily some bids were favoured over others.

Well there is nothing stopping Dome revealing them and his examination result if he chose to do so.

He is probably too humiliated to do so and wants to keep it under wraps so no follow up questions are asked of him and hopes the issue just dies away 

He probably realises that his best bet is that the New Caledonian civil unrest settles down and two new teams are added.  

AucklandPhoenix

Well there is nothing stopping Dome revealing them and his examination result if he chose to do so.

He is probably too humiliated to do so and wants to keep it under wraps so no follow up questions are asked of him and hopes the issue just dies away 

He probably realises that his best bet is that the New Caledonian civil unrest settles down and two new teams are added.  

How do you know that there is nothing stopping Dome reveling the metrics he was given? Especially if they werent actually given the actual scores after the fact.

Well he knows the metrics and as Andrew says above he knows his score. 

It’s not rocket science  - what exactly else is missing from the equation? 

If he was worried about transparency he would be transparent and release them.

andrewvoerman

mykey

Maybe in another thread but did we ever get for details on why we didn’t get into the OFC league? Lots of talk straight after but it’s all quiet now 

They scored fewer points than the other two New Zealand teams once the submitted documents were assessed. They were told their score and where it was arrived at the week after the announcement, but have offered no comment since then.

I’d love to know where the club went wrong and what they could have done better. 
Just seems like such a missed opportunity to get something back. The owners have pumped in millions, finally a chance to get something in return with all the money FIFA are pumping into this new league  and we missed out 

Theres been lots of speculation on why the Nix missed out to the South Island United bid. My take is SIU better understood what this Oceania comp was all about and directly targeted their application to suit. Their creation of a formal agreement with Vanuatu was a master stroke. It showed they were engaging directly with Oceania. I am guessing that the Nix thought they were a shoe in. I think they just misread the room. 
Our best hope now is joining a possibly expanded OC in the future

mykey

andrewvoerman

mykey

Maybe in another thread but did we ever get for details on why we didn’t get into the OFC league? Lots of talk straight after but it’s all quiet now 

They scored fewer points than the other two New Zealand teams once the submitted documents were assessed. They were told their score and where it was arrived at the week after the announcement, but have offered no comment since then.

I’d love to know where the club went wrong and what they could have done better. 
Just seems like such a missed opportunity to get something back. The owners have pumped in millions, finally a chance to get something in return with all the money FIFA are pumping into this new league  and we missed out 

You mean, all the money that the Saudis are pumping into the new league:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360866214/oceania-football-boss-ducks-saudi-funding-questions-reveals-ambitious-plans-pro-league-launch

I hesitate to post this here in case it’s blown out of proportion and used to further demonise Dome, but this thread seems more relevant than the general Weenix one so here goes:

Charter School Agency signed sports school contract with non-existent trust

In October, Associate Education Minister David Seymour posted a notice in the New Zealand Gazette that the agency had entered a contract with the "NZPAA Charitable Trust" to set up the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa as a charter school.

However, he said the issue would have no effect on work to set the school up and nor would setting the school up with a limited company rather than a trust as the sponsor.

Edit: Just noticed that the article describes Domey as “Wellington Phonenix” GM. I fear for journalism in this country.

No all points of view are welcome here.

Many of David’s supporters are keen contributors of this thread and highlight all his recent successes.

I think the charter school is very much his baby so highly relevant 

I'm not a trust expert but effectively if the trustees of said "trust" are the ones signing the agreement then it's all gucchi, whether the trust has been created or not. This seems to be a "nothing really to see here" article written a commentator who is very clearly anti-private/charter schools

theprof

I'm not a trust expert but effectively if the trustees of said "trust" are the ones signing the agreement then it's all gucchi, whether the trust has been created or not. This seems to be a "nothing really to see here" article written a commentator who is very clearly anti-private/charter schools

The source is anti charter schools, and fair enough this is public money and its use needs to be scrutinised (given charter school legislation its purposefully not transparent), the reporter is RNZ's education correspondent and appears they have verified the claims (like checking if the trust exists) and sought comment from affected parties (Welnix, Seymour, and the Charter School Authorisation Board), as well as providing context on how charter schools are meant to be set up (which this appears to not follow).

It honestly feels like this was a deal negotiated between Welnix and Seymour, not between Welnix and the Charter School Authorisation Board. And given the niche this school is looking to provide it certainly would have interested Seymour as he promotes charter schools to look to fill these niches.

What is interesting is that Charter Schools are not allowed to set conditions for entry, so they cannot exclude students who want to attend but are not high performing sports people. So what exactly is the gap they are trying to fill?

steelo

What is interesting is that Charter Schools are not allowed to set conditions for entry, so they cannot exclude students who want to attend but are not high performing sports people. So what exactly is the gap they are trying to fill?

They’d probably need non-athletic students to make it feasible right? Unless it’s a very small school.

From the Phoenix point of view, someone signing a contract on behalf of an entity that does not exist ranges somewhere from naive to deceptive.

From a government point of view, someone signing a non-existant entity up for funding approval, which means trust members and beneficiaries cannot be confirmed and therefore possible conflicts of interest identified is ither significantly more incompetent or incredibly deceptive (but perhaps less surprising).

steelo

What is interesting is that Charter Schools are not allowed to set conditions for entry, so they cannot exclude students who want to attend but are not high performing sports people. So what exactly is the gap they are trying to fill?

Domey does address this by saying, if you read the article:

"The kids in the Phoenix Academy would obviously have some interest in it, but it's really open to any student who wants to pursue an education that has a sports inclination. It's open to anybody," he said.

Hopefully he does not get a burn out. Two pro teams an academy, OFC pitches and a charter school sound like a lot of work.

Doesn’t he run a boarding house as well?

Edit: comment withdrawn, unhelpful sentiment. Charter school is happening so I guess I should hope it is a succesful endeavour that doesn't help to undermine the rest of the education system

AucklandPhoenix

Doesn’t he run a boarding house as well?

Yep, the Academy offers a boarding option already so that part will be familiar territory for them.

Simon B

I hesitate to post this here in case it’s blown out of proportion and used to further demonise Dome, but this thread seems more relevant than the general Weenix one so here goes:

Charter School Agency signed sports school contract with non-existent trust

The Charter School Agency signed a charter school contract with a trust that did not exist.

In October, Associate Education Minister David Seymour posted a notice in the New Zealand Gazette that the agency had entered a contract with the "NZPAA Charitable Trust" to set up the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa as a charter school.

But no such trust or trust with a variation of that name existed or exists in the Charities Register.

[…]

In a written response to RNZ, the agency said:

"The Charter School Agency received an application from a proposed sponsor seeking approval to operate a new charter school.

"During the application and contracting process, the proposed sponsor indicated it would establish a separate entity to contract with the agency. This resulted in a complication around the name used in the contract. We are working with the sponsor to resolve this. This is not expected to impact on plans for the school to open in February next year."

Asked if the contract with the non-existent trust was valid the agency said in a statement: "The Charter School Agency is seeking advice on the existing contract. It is unable to comment until this advice has been received."

Wellington Phoenix general manager David Dome told RNZ he could not go into whether the contract was valid.

"I'm not comfortable talking about that because there's sort of legal issues there now," he said.

Nor would he talk about why the agency thought it was signing a contract with a trust.

"During the contracting process we were always going to set up a separate contracting or business structure to run the school and we're doing that with the agency now," he said.

However, he said the issue would have no effect on work to set the school up and nor would setting the school up with a limited company rather than a trust as the sponsor.

Edit: Just noticed that the article describes Domey as “Wellington Phonenix” GM. I fear for journalism in this country.

Quick point on this, a trust not appearing on the charities register does not mean the trust does not exist, it just means it's not a registered charity.  The use of "charitable" without being a registered charity is not in of itself prohibited, but is a bit of a red flag. 

It also could be a timing issue. As an example, I was involved in the set up of a charitable trust last year, we set up the trust in July, applied to the charities commission in November and didnt get sign off until August this year! In the interim, we entered some contracts with suppliers etc. It was all above board, granted we didn't have charitable in our name which could be construed as misleading. 

All that said, it does seem like a bad bit of admin, and I'd expect better from an org like the Phoenix and I'd be having some pretty pointed discussions around what instruction was given to lawyers when and whether the outcome matched the instructions. 

Government revokes sports school contract with non-existent trust

The government has formally revoked the official notice of its charter school contract with a trust that never existed.

But the sports-focused school in Trentham will still go ahead.

[...]

The Charter School Agency said a Gazette notice of a new contract for the school would be posted shortly.

"We do not anticipate any impact on plans for the school to open in February next year," it said.

could not be less surprised by this sort of chat from Domey. Forget starting with some accountability or self-incrimination, just straight to finger pointing and whining

20251214_145725.jpg 68.75 KB

Haven’t heard from this guy for a while and he never fails to disappoint

He needs to figure out how his business model is going to attract crowds and not waste his time with this drivel.

Needs to count and worry about crowd numbers and not penalties 

imanixsupporter

could not be less surprised by this sort of chat from Domey. Forget starting with some accountability or self-incrimination, just straight to finger pointing and whining

20251214_145725.jpg 68.75 KB

He’s not wrong though. 
I don’t want my GM being an albino assassin thanks. 

As i said in match thread, looking forward to seeing how Domey spins this result in the programme next week

imanixsupporter

As i said in match thread, looking forward to seeing how Domey spins this result in the programme next week

'we missed lots of chances and so we just had bad luck and unfortunately luck is out of our control'

imanixsupporter

As i said in match thread, looking forward to seeing how Domey spins this result in the programme next week

If that’s what you’re looking forward to…!  I want to see better delivery. More chat up front. More goals. Earlier subs. A better result. 

GM or CEO defends team and coach shocker…

Does Dome write stuff for each game?

If so where can I find it? - just for lols

AucklandPhoenix

Does Dome write stuff for each game?

If so where can I find it? - just for lols

Yes he does, the match programme is usually linked to on the club's insta stories each game day

I’m getting some of this:

IMG_8699.jpeg 38.67 KB

Let’s be tough like AFC, right ? The Port would never tolerate a Nix fan constantly slagging off Becker or McFlynn on their site. 

David Dome has been with the Nix what eighteen years?

I actually can’t believe he has flown under the radar for this long.

Truely after eighteen years he deserves his own thread and questions asked about his performance.

He deserves just as much scrutiny as Chief - actually considerably more.