*Official* New Zealand Football Thread
 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/3978547a1823.html

New Zealand Soccer (NZS) says it is backing Wellington as the new home of the New Zealand-based A-League franchise.

"The Wellington consortium must secure further capital-based funding before NZS will commit to a licence agreement with A-league administrators, Football Federation of Australia (FFA)," NZS said in a statement today.

NZS chief executive Graham Seatter said the national body would "partner" Wellington in its search for additional funding with the hope of signing a sub-lease agreement by next Thursday.


Great news imo. Auckland don't deserve the franchise. Time to give Wellington a crack.

I just hope they re name the team 'Wellington' instead of 'NZ'. ffs everytime a commentator says NZ it sounds as if it is our national side...

If the fans get behind it and the team is made up of mainly New Zealand players then they'll be a success, maybe not on the field at first but there's potential there to build a very strong club.

Reports from over here suggest that Townsville could get NZ license if they don't sort something out fast. Some have suggested its already a done deal. This article only talks about the coaching role, but considering they are already talking about who might coach the club, it looks like the wheels are in motion. If Wellington want a spot they better act fast IMO.

EDIT: Just read the article again, looks like they are building for next season.

Haha, can see the Powerpuff Girls based insults flowing from the papers right now.

Also, isn't the A-League being expanded by 2 teams in either 08 or 09?

Yeah Townsville, Wollongong and a 2nd Victorian side are pushing for entry in 08 or 09. But FFA seem to prefer to wait until the 5 year lease is over for the clubs, so Townsville are looking at taking NZ spot.

hmm NZ has been awarded the licence for next season IIRC. Wellington just needs to pull together a bit more cash. Hopefully it isn't an issue and things are settled and signed for next Thursday and we can start signing players.

pretty poor that the national capital doesn't have a team, a lot of people here were hoping that a Canberra side would be added with an expansion. The problem is that ACT football is still very divided, the most likely team to lead an entry into the A League would be Canberra Deakin who are heavily backed by the Croatian community. People here would get behind a team i think, just need someone to get serious about it...

Canberra, Darwin and other places have been mentioned, but Townsville seem to be the most pro-active. The 2nd Victorian team have pretty big backing from Soccer Victoria and Wollongong through to old Wolves club, as well as the local league there. I don't think there will be an expansion until they sort of what to do with back up players and youth players in the current clubs. Also all 8 current clubs have to be stable themsleves, which could take another couple seasons.

Wollongong deserves a team before any of those. The Wolves were a successful club by NSL standards and a significant proportion of the Socceroos are actually from Wollongong.

why should Wollongong get a team when there is Newcastle, Sydney and Central Coast all around the same part of Australia? Wouldnt make sense to have half the teams that close together.

Yeah thats the big problem with getting another Sydney team or even Canberra to an extent. Already quite a few sides in the NSW area, so they are likely to expand in the other stats with QLD and Victoria most likely. Also has been some talk about getting a South-East Asia side like the Singapore side in the NBL. IMO would be more successful then an NZ side and would have a lot of backing interms of money.

There isnt enough quality players to expand yet anyway, it's still some way off and even then it's likely to be only one or two teams. It will be a long long time before we have two teams in one city.

TBF you've got Charlton, Fulham, West Ham, Chelsea, Arsenal and The Spuds in London in our Prem. There's a case to be made for having teams where the fans are.

The thing is football is trying to be a truely national game in Australia and you wont get that by having half the sides in NSW or Victoria, as is the case in the other major national football codes.

not to mention the population of London is a touch bigger than than that of Sydney and the surrounding area's.

Theres also another thing to consider here and thats the Australian fans. In England the supporters still turn up regardless of form or anything like that generally, however Australian's love a winner and having so many teams so close together the ones that dont go so well will suffer big time.