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Team Wellington chairman criticises changes to national league

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 2 Dec 2020, 9:44PM
(Photo / 123RF)
(Photo / 123RF)

Team Wellington chairman criticises changes to national league

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 2 Dec 2020, 9:44PM

Team Wellington chairman Peter Chote has grave concerns the domestic game will become diluted.

New Zealand Football yesterday announced an overhaul of the country's national leagues to prioritise youth development and sustainability.

From 2021, the ISPS Handa Men's Premiership will disband, replaced by three regional club-based conferences (Northern, Central and Southern) with four teams from the northern conference, three from the central and two from the southern, plus Wellington Phoenix's development side progressing to a national championship phase at the end of the season.

The top sides from each will play a championship round at the end of the season and all teams must include two under-20 players in their starting 11s.

However, Chote spoke to D'Arcy Waldegrave on Sportstalk to share his thoughts in a wide-ranging discussion. 

"It defies logic on how you can improve the quality of football in this country by spreading the small player base across a larger number of teams." 

He says that they had just two weeks to give feedback, which was "well insufficient". 

"There is a bit of thinking that we need to do about Team Wellington's and whether we can push on with this current National League with any degree of enthusiasm, because I don't know what any of it means." 

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