WAUCHOPE president Dane Seymour has requested Football Mid North Coast revisits their decision to implement relegation for the 2019 Premier League season.
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It comes after Wauchope are set to become the first team relegated when the new eight-team competition kicks off next year.
Seymour raised concerns about the future of his club after they had battled bravely over the last three years to build a competitive team.
FMNC chairman Mike Parsons, however, backed the decision from his board, but understood the angst from Wauchope.
“I certainly understand and have empathy for Wauchope, but that’s the way it is,” Parsons said.
“It’s no different to any other promotion or relegation system anywhere in the world and while I’m not comparing us to the EPL or Serie A … it’s the way football works.”
Parsons said the original decision had originally been voted on unanimously by all nine Premier League clubs in a round-table discussion.
“The reason is because the quality of the competition had dissipated over the years,” he said.
“Every club unanimously supported it and to have any sort of credibility, we can’t change our decision at the 11th hour.
“If there were concerns, we should have had the discussion at the start of the season.”
Seymour believes that his club’s hard work will be for nothing.
“If we have to go through the northern league again we potentially lose players to other clubs and I do have doubts about our ability to go up again,” he said.
It’s no different to any other promotion or relegation system anywhere in the world and while I’m not comparing us to the EPL or Serie A … it’s the way football works.
- FMNC chairman Mike Parsons
“If we were getting smashed every week by 10 goals I’d cop our relegation sweet,” Seymour said.
“We haven’t been disgraced this year and have managed to get results against higher-placed teams so I think we deserve to continue to develop as a Premier League club.”
Seymour believed it was important to note the decision had been made 18 months ago and the landscape had changed.
While future plans are set to advantage the Premier League club battling for survival, it didn’t help his club.
“It benefits the Premier League team every year except this year because it’s a straight drop,” he said.
“I would just like to see it revisited and if the decision from the other clubs is they want it to be eight teams, then we’ll cop it sweet.”
Seymour has a supporter in Port Saints coach Rubens Camejo who also tossed up a first and second division concept.
“To improve the quality of football in any region, you need to split the talent into one squad,” he said.
“You will have a Premier League representative of a club which is 20 players and one grade only and then have a second division.”
Such a concept would spread the talent around and encourage other clubs in outlying areas to aim for inclusion into the competition.
“Some areas can’t have a Premier League team at the moment because they haven’t got enough players,” Camejo said.
“They might have 15 or 16 good players, but they haven’t got the 25 to 28 players you need for two grades.”
The Saints coach indicated a new format could pose problems for clubs both financially as well as practically.
“A club with 30 players will be financially better off than a club that only registers 22 or 23 for Premier League,” he said.
“It’s a financial issue as well as a practical issue.”