FOOTBALL PEACE: The Whanganui clubs have reached agreements with Central Football ahead of the 2016 season.PHOTO/FILE
Most of the local Whanganui football clubs are satisfied their Tuesday night meeting with Central Football addressed their issues regarding the size of the fees and charges they have to pay.
In addition, plans are being put in place to create a new Whanganui "Hub", representing all the clubs, to act as local governance for the game, creating more of a clear distinction from the Whanganui Football Charitable Trust (WFCT), which is in charge of the assets at Wembley Park.
Wanganui City FC have joined Wanganui Athletic in paying all their Central Football (CF) fees, while it is understood Marist have agreed to pay an adjusted amount.
CF had previously declared any clubs or school teams holding back from paying fees from the end of last winter to be "unfinancial" and therefore their players could not legally transfer to other teams or play in Federation competitions.
CF's chief executive John McGifford said he walked away "quite buoyed" by the meeting.
"Certainly the three clubs that were there, gave their allegiance to CF and its competitions."
Castlecliff club representative Georgina Keegan, who attended on behalf of her husband and club president Ivan, currently working in Napier, said they were able to see the tax invoices for their charges.
In addition, CF has "gifted" the goal posts at Wembley Park to the Whanganui football community, as being charged for them was one of the major points of contention.
"That is a bonus and we're just waiting for the formal paperwork and documents," said Georgina Keegan.
"The clubs finally got the information that we asked. Normality in football gets underway."
The main thing for the Hub was bringing costs for clubs and players down, she said.
"I said to them, 'this bloody Hub better bloody work, or else we're up the creek', but it could be a way of getting players back on Wembley Park."
However, the accord is not without acrimony as Marist were not represented after president Wayne Ruscoe could not attend the meeting due to work commitments and WFCT's Russell Eades was not allowed to attend as a Marist spokesman.
"Both NZ Football and CF said it was inappropriate that Russell was there," said McGifford. "It was felt he couldn't be independent of the trust. It's a shame Marist couldn't send anyone else."
Eades confirmed there are issues between himself and McGifford.
"I wasn't allowed to attend specifically and am just waiting to see what comes out of it from the [meeting] minutes," he said.
"[McGifford] doesn't like to be questioned and having to answer them."
Eades said having the Hub was always the plan, but "it may not be as the powers-that-be want it".
"If I get my way, it will be a group that just gets on with what we've agreed to do with CF and start to take things over."
This would help bring down the expenses which have accrued for local clubs since CF became the governing body for the region, he said.
"A layer of cost was put there and it's never left."
Athletic president Peter James said the Tuesday meeting had really good discussions and more meetings will be scheduled. He was satisfied all the CF charges can be accounted for.
"We paid the amount and if we have any queries, we go back [to CF]."
In the meantime locally, Greg Fromont will put together the plans for the Whanganui Hub, which will then work with CF on daily operations while the WFCT just focuses on the Wembley Park assets, James said.
"There's two institutions and they're quite separate, day to day.
"[The Hub] put the leagues together and work with the licence holders.
"We are the guinea pigs of NZ Football. If it works well here, it will roll out to other areas."
McGifford agreed the Hub concept could be used elsewhere if it is successful for Whanganui.
"This was a initiative that was presented to NZ Football. It could be a blueprint for other regions."
"If everything panned out ... Whanganui could have a 1500 membership base, and that's exciting."
However, James said there was still a lot of issues and work to do to get the Hub up and running.
"It's not going to happen in one year. It won't happen if people continue to bicker.
"There's some huge personalities that have a dislike for each other and it gets in the way of conversations.
"Russell [Eades] didn't speak on behalf of everyone."
Wanganui City's president Peter Goldfinch was also pleased with the Tuesday meeting.
"It was a limited agenda, we've covered all the issues that were raised by the four clubs.
"We are satisfied with the responses and confident that the future is looking brighter than the recent past. We are now completely financial," Goldfinch said.
Other matters included discussions with New Zealand Football regarding the costs for regular club players having to pay fines for yellow and red cards, Keegan said.