I have no agenda here or link with Auckland city, but reading people's posts here criticizing the funding of City is laughable. If these guys had the nous and brains to link up with a trust, then good on them and having a go at them only sounds Ike sour grapes. Other clubs simply need to get their houses in order and follow their example. Players being paid, players ending up at the Phoenix, kids being coached, not embarrassing the country at the world club championship., beating the phoenix. What is the problem here?
The problem is that the end (no matter how agreeable to those of us in the football community) does not justify the means.
AP, you talk as though The Gambling Act 2003 doesn't even exist and pokies are just an unregulated supply of free money.
Danny Hay articulated some of key issues facing the ASBP in the article I linked to a few pages back. I then added the dimension of pokies to that. Issues with pokie funding and the various impacts it has on the league have been discussed at length on this forum already, most recently in the "Wishes for the new ASBP season" thread from about post #156 onwards.
Some of you seem to think that I am running some kind of agenda here, or wish to ruin ACFC and/or the ASBP itself. I am not, and do not. But I do believe the ASBP has serious problems and pokie funding, for various reasons, is a major contributor to that. Believe it or not I honestly think I am being more protective of the league, and am more concerned for its future, than many of you with your heads stuck in the sand.
Anyway, at this point maybe any further discussion should be moved to one of the ASBP specific threads, such as "Wishes for the new ASBP season".