The 51-club National Premier League (NPL) boycott in Victoria hasn’t frightened the Football Federation of Victoria (FFV), with its NPL application deadline going ahead as planned. Last Friday, at 5.00 pm, the FFV went ahead with its deadline, despite mounting court action.
An FFV spokesperson told Neos Kosmos yesterday it has been receiving many expressions of interest, and was expecting more before deadline. The FFV has been working with clubs directly for weeks to take them through the process. It says it will be announcing Victorian NPL licences as planned on 30 September after the assessment panel is happy with their selection.
Yet Victorians clubs are increasing pressure on the FFV to halt the process and come to a workable agreement. They claim the model’s unworkable, and financially risky for clubs.
According to South Melbourne club director Tom Kalas and Box Hill FC vice president Nicholas Tsiaras, 51 clubs have joined the boycott list and are now pursuing legal action.
Fourteen clubs are heading the action on behalf of the 51 clubs and affiliations, who launched legal proceedings Thursday in the Melbourne Supreme Court to stop the deadline.
In an eleventh hour appeal, the club alliance sent a statement to the FFV calling for the process to halt.
“We call upon the FFV to respect the concerns of its clubs and act as its mandate requires it to do – in the best interests of the game,” the statement read. “Again we remind the FFV to suspend the NPL process… and talk with the clubs, not at them.”
The FFV’s CEO Mitchell Murphy has stood firm and has denied the NPL process is in crisis. “Unfortunately there have been recent media reports that suggest a boycott of the NPL including from some clubs that did not even put in an expression of interest,” Murphy said in a statement.
“Despite these rumours, FFA and FFV are totally committed to Victoria’s NPL competition and I can categorically state that FFV will implement it in 2014.
“Currently we are working with many applicants, including some on the so-called ‘boycott list’, and I am more than confident that we will have a strong competition next year.
According to reports, the clubs plan to establish a breakaway football body to be called the Association of Football Clubs Victoria to be in direct competition with the NPL.
Fifty-one co-signatory clubs will convene on 26 August to agree on the minimum requirements to be contained in the ‘New NPLV’ model for 2014.