Football New Zealand may have opened a can of worms with their decision to dump Wairarapa United from this year's Chatham Cup competition for allegedly playing an ineligible player in their 2-1 third-round victory over Napier City Rovers.
Wairarapa United heard of their elimination only yesterday afternoon but it wasn't long before coach Phil Keinzley was fielding emails, texts and telephone calls from people from throughout the country saying they knew of other clubs who had broken the same rule in other Chatham Cup games and got away with it.
"I was amazed how quickly the messages started to come in," Keinzley said.
"If even half of them are true, then Football New Zealand have a big problem on their hands.
"There seems to be a lot of clubs willing to take a risk in this area ... and here we are trying to do everything right and we get slammed.