After extensive consideration, Mainland Football has made the difficult decision to pull out of the National Age Group tournament in Wellington in December.

We understand that this is a disappointing decision with other football cancellations this year, but there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty which has meant we are not able to commit to this tournament. The main factors in the decision-making process were: 

• Auckland and Northern teams are unable to attend due to current Covid Lockdown Regulations and potentially other Federations being in an uncertain position on attendance. 
• Uncertainty around travel across the country during such a time with the very real possibility of another lockdown during this time
• The payment for such an event with the possibility of cancellation further down the track is not something we feel comfortable asking our parents to do at this point and so close to Christmas. We are at the point of having to make some non-refundable payments. 
• The movement to a club based model next year means that we believe the risk associated with travelling and attending outweighs the value of the competition.
• The timeline toward a nationwide move to a ‘traffic light system’ is uncertain. Planning around this is almost impossible.
• The compulsory vaccination mandate is still unclear for staff and volunteers that come in contact with young people in the sports sector.
• The psychological well-being of our players to possibly name squads and get them excited about the opportunity to then need to pull out further down the track.
• The responsibility of physical well-being with over 80 players and staff travelling to a different region with so much uncertainty of future spread of the virus.
   

If the virus situation remains stable in our region, we will look to explore some games based opportunities later this year in a way that will be easier to ensure the safety and well-being of our regions players and to keep costs down. We have also created some game days for selected local players in the affected age groups, which will be filmed and shared with New Zealand Football staff to ensure they have an opportunity to be seen by National Team selectors.

Article added: Thursday 11 November 2021