Following the most recent Board Meeting of Football Federation Tasmania we are pleased to announce that Bob Gordon has been appointed to the Board and we now once again have the full complement of 8 Directors (including President). For those not familiar with the processes, the volunteer Board consists of six Directors elected by the stakeholders (Club and Junior Association Presidents and Chair of Standing Committees) and up to two Directors appointed by the Board itself.
One of the initiatives from the Junior Advisory Committee has been the re-establishment of the Hobart Carnival which took place on this coming weekend, 29-30 April 2017, principally at Soldiers Walk on the Domain. We thank Central Region Juniors for their work in organising the Carnival and we hope all the participants had an enjoyable football experience.
There was further discussion at the Board regarding the important Infrastructure Review which is underway. Our CEO Mike Palmer is in the process of gathering data on our current facilities and arranging individual meetings with clubs to review the state of their current grounds and identify opportunities to work with councils to enhance and upgrade facilities.
There was a request made to the Board by some clubs to review the process for promotion/relegation for the PS4 NPL competition. The current approved plan is to add a team from the northern and southern championships at the end of the 2018 season to create a 10-team competition and following that, introduce promotion and relegation in 2019. The Board discussed the request and elected to retain the planned strategy and timeline at this time. Competition structures are reviewed as a matter of course at the end of each season.
Discussions have taken place with Football Federation Victoria to conduct the Bass Strait Cup for the Women’s State Team again in 2017. This time it is our turn to travel to Melbourne for the match. The Board has determined that the selection criteria will be the same as that used for the Men’s team when it plays. The squad will be made up of players who have played a minimum of three matches in the PFD Women’s Super League (not including any Visa players). In addition there are a total of three spots available for Tasmanian players currently participating on the mainland and/or Visa Players playing in the PFD WSL. There is no date currently confirmed for the match but the intent would be for it to take place following the conclusion of the normal season roster.
The Board is very pleased to see the establishment of an under 16 competition which includes teams from Burnie, Somerset, Ulverstone, Devonport and Launceston. It is an excellent extension of the current competitions across the north of our state and in particular we would like to thank Dale Rigby and his team at NTJSA for pulling this together with the cooperation of the clubs.
Yours in football,
Sean Collins
President Football Federation Tasmania