League planning going well but still challenges

Chris Wright
Chris Wright
Excitement is brewing but there is still plenty to learn before the South Island football league begins.

Scheduled to begin on June 30, the league will bring together the top three teams from the Football South Premier League and top five from the Mainland League.

It will run through to September 1.

Planning has been going well, although there are still uncertainties and challenges to be overcome.

"We’re reminding everyone that the South Island league this year is almost a pilot," Football South CEO Chris Wright said.

"We knew we’d have a lot to learn and we are.

"We’ve had a number of challenges logistics-wise, we’ve had a number of curve balls we’ve had to work through.

"That was to be expected and we’re looking forward to get it started."

Travel had been the main challenge.

Teams would travel via a mixture of self-driven vans, buses and flights.

Flights would ease the pressure on long trips, notably if Southland FC and Nelson Suburbs both qualifed.

The draw was being configured to work in with when lower prices were available.

However, not knowing which teams would qualify made that difficult.

That was a result of the closeness of the competition with four weeks remaining.

Queenstown, Dunedin Technical and Southland United are tied on top in the Otago competition on 10 points.

Roslyn Wakari trails on eight, while Caversham and Green Island have seven each.

Roslyn Wakari and Southland are yet to have byes.

How those teams will look once those South Island places are decided is another issue to be examined.

The transfer window is open until June 30 as it has been in the past, although that is something to keep an eye on.

"We don’t want a huge amount of movement," Wright said.

"But we want the opportunity for players who want to play for Southern United to challenge themselves at a higher level in the South Island league.

"It’s one of those arguments that has pros and cons to each side.

"Do you put a transfer rule in from the start of the season to prevent any players moving and players don’t have the opportunity?

"Or do you just make it fully open all throughout the season, but then clubs are at risk and competitions at risk?

"So it’s a challenging one, but we decided with the clubs in consultation to leave it how it is and see how it goes."

He was unsure whether Southern United’s Irish group would turn out during the competition.It was their decision whether they played, although he understood the biggest thing holding them back was work commitments. As football development officers with Football South, they worked most weekends and weeknights, often travelling throughout the federation.

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