Wanganui Athletic are believed to have paid all their CF fees, as did Wanganui City under pressure. PHOTO/FILE
Upset Whanganui football club delegates will meet with representatives of Central Football on Tuesday night to try and resolve a tense standoff over paying charges the local clubs feel have not been justified.
Currently, local clubs and school teams who have not paid for those fees, going back to the end of last season, have been declared "unfinancial" by Central Football (CF), and therefore their players cannot legally transfer to other teams or enter region-wide competitions such as the Federation League.
Representatives of the Whanganui Football Charitable Trust say CF had refused requests to see invoices or accounting information on the charges, going back to June last year.
In an email to the Wanganui Chronicle, WFCT representative Russell Eades compared the "unfinancial" label to "thinly veiled extortion".
"Also, clubs and schools cannot apply for funding for new gear, equipment etc as they must prove affiliation, and that cannot happen until the charges are resolved one way or another," he said.
"On top of all of this, when we go back over the last couple of years, we can easily see at least $1100 in the 2013 and 2014 years being charges for costs that we believe did not occur. If we include the 2015 year the total just grows."
However, CF say there have been communication issues with certain elements within the Whanganui football fraternity, but all of their processes have been followed.
"I don't believe we haven't been transparent, and I stand by that," said CF chief executive John McGifford yesterday.
He was aware of growing agitation and accusations found on local football blog sites and social media pages, which McGifford said was only making matters worse.
"I can put my hand on my heart and deny any element of them, and I'm sure that will also come out on Tuesday night. They're [meeting] really to address a number of ongoing concerns - the ongoing management of it."
A representative of NZ Football will also be at the Whanganui meeting.
An email approved by the CF board was sent to the local clubs yesterday and may have already addressed some of the issues.
Of the four local clubs - Wanganui Athletic were understood to have paid all their CF fees, while Wanganui City, Marist and Castlecliff had not.
Wanganui City is now believed to have also paid the charges, allowing their teams to compete in the Federation competitions.
"I've just got an email from CF - not in any detail," said City's president Peter Goldfinch.
He could not comment further until after the meeting, he said.
However, Marist and Castlecliff, who only play local games at Wembley Park, will not pay the charges without proper justification.
Castlecliff's Ivan Keegan said CF will send out one charge to the other provinces under their umbrella - Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu and Taranaki - where the playing fields are owned by the local councils.
"In Whanganui, they're not, and this year we've been charged a goalposts fee for some reason.
"I've been with Castlecliff for 18 years. The last 4-5 years, I've gone there and pulled [the posts] up and down myself."
Keegan said the club also had a $546 charge for portable goalposts.
"We're protesting paying something we already own.
"We just want to know what we're paying. It's time Whanganui stood up and held their own a bit."
He also said there were charges for areas he knew had been covered by grants from the NZ Lotteries Commission.
"If you're charging for it, you're double dipping as far as I'm concerned."
Marist president Wayne Ruscoe agreed, although he was encouraged by the Friday email.
"It's great that today they're providing some clarity around these rules.
"We want some transparency from CF over the charges.
"It's sort of clipping the ticket for work that's been done by volunteers, or work that hasn't been done.
"It's not a problem paying legitimate bills - it's the failure to answer reasonable questions. Sport is a consumer thing."
Ruscoe felt the unfinancial label was a very heavy-handed approach by CF, given the charges have been under questioning for some time.
"It's punishing individual players for the action of the administrators of the club.
"It hurts the players that have nothing to do with the issue."
There were already teams in Whanganui who do not play under the CF banner and they were working to bring them back, but this has not helped, he added.
McGifford said the charges have been applied by CF for years and paid by every club in their Federation.
He was confident these matters "are fairly easily resolved".
The "unfinancial" ruling came directly from NZ Football itself and was very clear.
"The clubs have known by the end of the season, by the time they want to [have] transfers, it won't be done until [payment's] settled.
"You can't have clubs with money owed or the players owing the club money."
The situation bears resemblance to the formation of Taranaki Soccer in 2010, which was a breakaway junior football body in North Taranaki.
Catering for players aged 5-10, Taranaki Soccer was able to charge a flat fee of $75 for each team, compared to CF charges of between $165 and $359.
Despite then CF boss Bob Patterson warning clubs and schools involved with the rebel group they could be expelled from NZ Football, more than 100 teams flocked to the new banner, leaving less than 20 for the official competitions by 2011, which saw CF work with Taranaki Soccer to have their remaining teams join that league.
Wanganui Chronicle's football columnist Jason King said a similar breakaway move was possible.
"It could shape to be something like that. That occurs.
"You're talking about now, local consumers, who want to play local games of football.
"It's on the cards if we intend to stand our ground.
"We've respectfully asked, 'what are the invoices for?'
"All clubs, with the correct justification, would see it and probably be okay with it."