CEO Capital Football Responds to Criticisms By the Nearpost Local

As you may be aware, the Nearpost Local (NPL) has broached several topics around Football and Futsal in recent times. This has attracted criticism by Capital Football. To refresh you, the NPL has commented on the following matters:

• Advice by CF that the Canteen Services at Hawker during the Fed Cup would be retained by CF and income retained by CF, rather than allocated to Clubs on roster to generate review. (clubs a re now rostered at Hawker)
• The advice to Premier League Mens Clubs at a recent meeting that no sponsorship was in place for the 2011 season. (sponsorship has now been organised)
• Inadequacy / lack of availability of suitable playing surfaces in support of Football (and Futsal) (see explanation below)
• The decision not to register all SL mens teams to play in season 2011. (believe situation unchanged and excess teams on "waiting list")

The NPL invited the CEO to make a contribution to this Blog on the matters which we found ourselves in disagreement. The CEO accepted this invitation and responded by email. Below is the CEO's contribution and as ever, we are happy to welcome the CEO's engagement with the NPL.

For your blog Peter if you wish to publish.
Three things from Capital Football to clarify some of the statements in your recent blog -
1. CF runs the federation cup for men and women and the games are not to be regarded as club games in the same way that premiership games are played. When we are directly responsible for games at Hawker Football Centre, we reserve the right to run the canteen as this is our home venue. We fully understand the financial burden of clubs and will provide opportunities for clubs to run the canteen where possible for them to raise money.
2. We had a sponsor for the men’s premier league (Schweppes/Gatorade) and lost it because clubs didn't support it. We met with a prospective sponsor on Wednesday, as we have met with others over the past few weeks, with an expectation that sponsorship for both the Federation Cup competitions as well as the MPL will be forthcoming this year – so stay tuned for the announcements.
3. We take as much direct action as we believe feasible in a govt town where existing and new land for recreation space is scarce. The lack of space and suitable facilities doesn’t simply apply to our football code but also to other sports like cricket, swimming, water skiing, cycling, equestrian among others. We have it on sound knowledge that the new Molongolo area, for example, will have between 8 and 12 football fields and we continue to work with Woden Valley clubs and the govt on the redevelopment of land at Mawson for a new football facility. We are also working with the govt to bring back on line some grounds that went off line years ago due to the drought. We don't want to turn teams away and will do our best to accommodate all entries wherever practical, however, there may be viable operational reasons that prevent us from catering for every single team that wants to play.
I fully support the hard work and best intentions of all those people who are "capital football" – particularly at this time of year when registrations are being lodged, teams formed and expectations for the coming season are riding high.
Heather
CEO Capital Football