Victorian Football clubs are threatening legal action against Football Federation Victoria (FFV) if the governing body does not halt the current application process for the new National Premier League (NPL).
More than 44 Victorian clubs announced their intention to boycott the current model of the National Premier League in a statement earlier this month, citing large financial concerns.
Victorian Premier League teams are refusing to cooperate with the FFV’s current model. Credit: Melinda Cimer
Despite this, the FFV are holding firm on their model and say they are “very confident” the National Premier League will go ahead in 2014.
Clubs are not against a National Premier League and would like to begin talks on a new model on August 26, asking the FFV to scrap the current model by today.
Only one Victorian Premier League team, Richmond, is yet to announce their rejection of the current model.
Timeline of the dispute between clubs and FFV: Click each event for a more detailed description.
One major issue with the current model cited by clubs is the removal of sub junior ranks (U7 – U11) which are a large source of revenue and volunteers for clubs.
Despite some states such as New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia allowing sub junior ranks, the current FFV model forces Victorian clubs to split into two entities, one NPLV club (U12 +) and a community club (U7-U11).
While not explaining the full reasoning behind the decision, FFV CEO Mitchell Murphy outlined the FFV’s position.
“The National Premier League is designed by FFA and endorsed by FFV to create a level of premier clubs in Victoria with structure that provides pathways to develop players from U12s upwards,” said Mr Murphy.
“National Premier League clubs need to be clearly distinguishable from community clubs.”
South Melbourne Director, Tom Kalas, was unable to speak today but in an article with FourFourTwo he explained the negative impact this will have on clubs.
“Most community clubs have between 100 and 200 kids in that sub-junior age category, It’s the most populous part of a club and that’s where most of your members and volunteers come from,” said Mr Kalas.
“So not only are we fighting for infrastructure with footy and all the other codes, now we’ve got to fight for allocation of space among entities we’ve created within our own clubs.
“It’s a massive legal and costly headache for what purpose?”
New licences will be announced on September 30.
