KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Football Championship clubs are set to again be left as the whipping boys as players search out cash-rich winter league clubs around the country.
With almost two months still to run in the season, the player shuffle is already well under way and the franchises cannot prevent it.
In the highest-profile move so far, Benjamin Totori, Alick Maemae and Nelson Sale - the Solomon Islanders playing for NZFC club YoungHeart Manawatu - have signed to play for Nelson club Richmond City in their debut Mainland Premier League season with suggestions City will pay fulltime players around $600 a week.
City, to be coached by former All Whites midfielder Peter Simonsen, will be strengthened by the signings, but the move again begs the question over the extent to which the NZFC will suffer by having to put out players who have played almost 11 months non-stop.
"At the end of the day, it was their call," said YoungHeart Manawatu chairman Mark Cleaver. "Obviously they had an attractive offer to play in Nelson."
Asked whether they had signed with the blessing of Manawatu coach Shane Rufer, Cleaver said Rufer would have preferred they had stayed in the Manawatu, taken a break and then prepared for the next NZFC season.
It is understood that under the terms of their contract with the Palmerston North-based club, the trio were to have returned home at the end of the NZFC season.
"This is their living and if we can't offer them something over the winter then there is little we can do in this situation," said Cleaver.
He agreed there were no real winners when players were playing back-to-back seasons without decent recovery time. Cleaver and Rufer were unaware of the move to Richmond City until it became public.
New Zealand Soccer, while far from happy with a situation which allows the so-called best 180 or so players in the country to play summer and winter, admits that at this stage, there is little it can do.
"The challenge is for the franchises and New Zealand Soccer to sort it out," said NZS deputy chief executive Mike Kernaghan yesterday. "The franchises can't withhold a transfer request because these are amateur players playing in amateur leagues.
"They are free to go.
"But it is a major concern as players are not getting a decent break and will ultimately burn out.
"The only solution could be for all eight franchises to agree that they will not sign any player who plays after July 1 - the start date for the new year under Fifa regulations.
"New Zealand Soccer and the franchises will never be in a situation to deny a player a transfer. But it is an absolute concern that some players are playing so much football."
A recent meeting of NZFC clubs resolved to petition New Zealand Soccer asking for it to hold player registrations in accordance with the Oceania Football Confederation rules on the O-League. That would allow the franchises to determine the winter programme for their existing players, including a predetermined rest period for core players and the amount of game time for fringe players.
The clubs also want the NZFC competition to run from November to April with a new-look, four-team play-off in May thereby overlapping the winter leagues and making it very difficult for players to play both.
Winter league clubs, who play for no prizemoney and with no chance of winning promotion to the NZFC, will surely oppose any such move but will have to ask themselves if their motives are good for the game.
