Mon 26th Feb 2007

New Zealand Soccer has received submissions for the Hyundai A-League sublicense from two interested parties, one Wellington based and the other based in Auckland.

A due diligence process will now be undertaken on the respective business plans by an independent auditor external to New Zealand Soccer and a decision will be made late on Wednesday afternoon before reporting back to Football Federation Australia on Thursday.

Licence Update - 24-02-07

The board of New Zealand Soccer made a unanimous decision on Friday afternoon to accept the licence for an A-League club in New Zealand, provided a number of conditions can be met before next Thursday’s deadline.

New Zealand Soccer has been given until March 1 to accept the A-League licence offered to them last week by the Football Federation of Australia and New Zealand Soccer CEO, Graham Seatter says they will work with interested parties to find a suitable sub-licensee.

“We will go back to the original groups who contacted us and ask them to come back to us with a full business plan by 5pm on Monday,” said New Zealand Soccer CEO, Graham Seatter.

“We have stipulated what the business plan needs to include to meet our requirements. We accept that this is a short deadline but these groups have been working on their business plans for several weeks,” said Seatter.

The next step would be to conduct a due diligence process on the business plans of the potential sub-licensees before New Zealand Soccer reports back to the FFA on Thursday with a final decision on whether to accept the licence or not.

At that stage the FFA and New Zealand Soccer will draw up a final licence agreement that is acceptable to both parties.

A sub-licensee arrangement is the only workable solution as New Zealand Soccer is not in a position to accept the substantial financial risk associated with running a professional club.

New Zealand Soccer was offered the licence last week after an Auckland consortium withdrew their bid and the Wellington-Palmerston North bid failed to meet the requirements of the FFA.

Graham Seatter, who was an interested spectator at last week’s A-League Grand Final in Melbourne, emphasised once again how determined New Zealand Soccer was to find a suitable solution that would allow New Zealand to retain a club in the Hyundai A-League.

“We are very keen to keep the A-League licence in New Zealand. We can see the success of the competition and it would be great for the development of the game and of our players in New Zealand to be involved in the competition,” said Seatter.

Seatter said the board of New Zealand Soccer was happy that a sub-licensee agreement was consistent with the organisation’s constitution and fitted the strategic plan for the development of the game in NZ.