Background:

A few months ago Football South did a review of our support of Southern United. For those who don't know, Football South made a decision in 2016 to take on ownership of Southern United and it's licenses to participate in the national youth and senior leagues - the highest level of football competition in New Zealand. 

Football South already had rights to the national league Futsal and Women's licenses, and chose to align these under Southern United as part of 'one club'. 

Review & Levy

With the licensing period up for renewal, we asked our members how you thought the club was doing, if we should continue, and if you'd support an annual levy to keep it going. We run Southern United at a very tight budget, and it would be impossible to keep the club running without the additional support, especially with the National Women's League moving to two-rounds and cost increases to other elements such as travel. 

While we're always targeting improvements, we've been pretty happy with the progress made across a variety of areas including player development, performance, growth of the game, and connections to the community and grass-roots.

We were delighted to see that on the whole, our community agreed. We got a good volume of responses to surveys and meetings, and also lots of great questions and suggestions to help us continue improving. As a club Southern United has come a long way and Football South's each season is to keep making progress year-to-year, and we think Southern United is a critical part of our strategy, not only as a 'shop window' for our best players but also as a tool to align the game and provide an aspirational pathway. 

As such, we made the decision to keep Southern United for a further two-years of license, until the NZF Competitions Review is complete for 2020. 

To help us continue to run Southern United we have added an annual player levy which is equivalent to:

• $8 per senior and $5 per junior player football player in Otago
• $5 per senior and $3 per junior player outside of Otago
• $2 per Futsal player in Otago

This will take affect for 2019 Football and Futsal Competitions.

What's the levy used for?

The levy goes towards the costs of running and entering our four teams, in particular towards entry fees (over $70k per year), player medical supports (such as physiotherapy and strength & conditioning) and facilities. Your contribution gives our players and staff the best opportunity to develop and perform at the top level of the game in New Zealand. We (the club, it's players, staff and board) genuinely appreciate your support with this - we all want to continue the jouney!

Survey & Feedback

• Around 600 responses from 4,000 families contacted
• 89% said we should keep Southern United's four teams

• 72% would support a levy similar to that of Canterbury Utd
• 77% agreed or strongly agreed Southern United have made positive progress, only 5% disagreed
• 74% agreed or strongly agreed Southern United is an aspirational pathway, only 12% disagreed
• 76% agreed or strongly agreed Southern United is a key part of the game in Football South, only 11% disagreed
• 63% agreed or strongly agreed Southern United players are active in the community, 16% disagreed
• 62% agreed or strongly agreed that Southern United is well run and communicates proactively, only 12% disagreed

The major written and verbal feedback elements were:

Positive: FDO's and programmes have made a great impact, the teams have progressed well, lots of community impact especially with juniors, the pathway is aspirational, it's reinvigorated football

Work-ons: Not enough local representation in the senior team, lack of presence and support in the regions. 

What Next?

Over the next few months we'll be providing more information and answering some of the feedback areas. Some of those you'll have seen in action already, such as the 'one environment' between the Youth and Senior teams which has already shown much promise. Other elements we'll provide more detail on or will be part of new initiatives in 2019 onwards.

2018/19 Season So Far...

We've been delighted with the performances of all four teams this season. Southern United Futsal, Women and Youth have all finished for the season, while the ISPS Premier League team are now back in action for the second half of the season...thankfully with a lot more home games!

Our Futsal team made it to the final and despite a brave performance couldn't quite overcome AFF. The highlight of their season must surely be the amazing last-second winner they scored in the semi-final!

The Youth have progressed hugely through the combined environment with the senior team, with several youth players making their senior team debuts so far this season. They were close to the title too, which could have been won by any one of four teams including Southern United on the final day. 

Our Women backed-up their game-changing 2017 season by proving they are now capable of beating any team on their day. With improved consistency and some amazing performances, they were competitive throughout the campaign and finished 5th in the league. The highlight for me was the 5-4 win against Capital on the last day of the season, which now means we've beaten every team in the league over the previous two campaigns.

What also stands out is the increasing number of regional players involved in the club with many regional players making appearances for the senior teams this season – such as…Stu Catto, Adam Hewson, Jack Stephenson, Oliver Colloty, Amy Hislop, Cam & Ruby Anderson, and Ben Deeley. It's a huge travel commitment and I'd like to thank those players and thier families for thier commitment to the club. 

Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, funders, sponsors and supporters involved.

Where do my fees go?

In 2017 I released an article aiming to answer the question 'where do my fees go?'...you can see this here: Click here

In terms of where a member's fees go, the percentages I detailed in this article are still pretty accurate, although I have updated them slightly based off the 2018 figures:

• Football South: 48%
• New Zealand Football: 15%
• Club: 37%

This is based off an average of our clubs fees at various grades, so it will individually differ depending on the region you're in and the grade you play at. 

The way football works in our Federation is that we charge clubs and entry fee, and clubs on-charge this to members plus some extra to pay for kit, coaching, facilities, administration etc. As discussed in the previous article, our game is funding bottom-up by the members so it doesn't really make sense to compare our pricing to sports like Rugby and Cricket. However, compared to similarily funded sports we're one of the lowest price-points for participation and we'd like to keep it that way. 

In terms of what we do with our 48%, I'd now like to provide more transpaency about this. When you look at our business overall the expenses in the competitions area are:

Again, this varies from region to region because of the scale of competitions (60% of our members are in Otago) and the individual arrangement we have with each region. Note that this excludes the Men's and Women's Premier Leagues, which we run at a slight defecit, and the Southern Utd Levy which will goes directly to the club. 

So, of the 48% of your fees that come to Football South, around 84% of that is used for direct expenses to run the competition, leaving around 17% which we call 'membership' (traditionally it's been called affiliation). These membership funds contribute towards our strategic plan, a big part of which is employing Federation-wide staff to develop the game - such as myself, our Football Development Officers, Women's Development Officer, Referee Development Manager, Futsal Development Manager.

Your 17% is important for that, and makes up about 20% of the total cost of delivering on our strategy - we also attain funding from other sources including grants, sponsorship and New Zealand Football.

I feel it's really important that we're transparent and honest with how it all flows, so if you have any questions please ask, or request your club does on your behalf. We also think it's important to invest back into the game, and through your help we've continued to grow the game, develop capability, and support our clubs and members making the game great in our Federation. 

Thanks again for all your support.

Finally, I look forward to seeing many of you at the ISPS games over the second half of the senior season. 

Kind Regards,

Chris Wright

CEO | Football South & Southern Utd