Soccer: Enlarged national soccer champs stay invitation-only

Michael Glading. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand Football Championship incumbents must reapply to play in the 2010-11 season and beyond. They could also be joined by up to two new franchises as early as next season.

In reaffirming that the NZFC will remain an invitation-only, amateur competition, New Zealand Football also announced plans to expand.

There had been suggestions the national competition might revert to a club-based league - as in the old National League days - but the NZF board have kept the status quo after receiving a report from an independent competitions review committee.

While a start date has yet to be confirmed, NZF chief executive Michael Glading said yesterday that if the competition was expanded it would likely finish later rather than starting earlier.

"We want to create a gap between the winter and summer leagues," said Glading, who added that the date for applications and the timing of the announcement of the successful bidders was also yet to be set. "We will start the process in January with the first call to the incumbents to see whether they want to continue."

NZF will put $450,000 into the NZFC and the National Youth League over the next three years - the payback from Auckland City's fifth-place finish at this month's Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.

Each club will receive around $20,000 a year which can be put towards the $60,000 entry fee each club must pay.

Waitakere United chairman Rex Dawkins said that the clubs versus franchises debate had been healthy.

"People in New Zealand and elsewhere in the world will say club football is the backbone of the game," said Dawkins. "I can only think of New Zealand, Australia and the MLS in America where the top leagues are played by franchised teams but I think that is the way to go."

The grand final will again be the last game of the season with the winner the first O-League qualifier. The NZF round-robin winner will claim the second spot.

In another change, school and business teams will have to be affiliated to their local federations if they want to enter the 2010 Chatham Cup.