Green Gully joins Knights in NPL rebuff
By Donald Sutherland May 27, 2013   

Victoria’s most successful state league club Green Gully will not participate in the National Premier League (NPL) after joining Melbourne Knights in deciding not to submit an expression of interest.
The decision, which comes less than 12 hours after Knights’ same announcement, was confirmed through Gully’s General Manager Raymond Mamo who cited financial difficulties and restrictions on producing young footballers are key areas of concern.
“We’re not interesting in putting an expression of interest in either, so we will not be doing that,” Mamo confirmed.
“You’ve got to look at the finance side of things. We don’t feel at the moment that it’s viable and obviously a major concern is that we don’t believe it is for the best interest of the juniors.
“Cutting down on juniors is obviously a concern. What happens to the children from the age of five to the age of twelve? Our club believes that’s part of the crucial parts of their stages in learning how to control a ball and get proper coaching at that early stage. So they’re going to be pushed back and not have the proper coaching, and then they’re expecting to be at a top level at the age of 12 where they start playing at the “elite” level.”
Mamo also revealed the strain the NPL is putting on relationships with particular councils, saying that some football clubs could lose their ground should they apply for the new competition.
“Councils will not be supporting any clubs that are on council land that will be putting in for the NPL. So they’ve made it very clear that they won’t – so that’s any club that’s in Brimbank that is on council land that puts in for the NPL, the council will not support it and they will ultimately lose their land. ”
The Green Gully General Manager also indicated the club’s decision was influenced by a percieved lack of flexibility from the Football Federation Victoria (FFV), highlighting the use of the word “elite” throughout NPL documents which has caused conflict with various councils.
“We’ve had three meetings with the FFV and we’ve outlined that there’s some issues with the NPL. They’ve gone away and said some things won’t be able to be changed and some things they can look at. For example, the name “elite,” which a lot of clubs and council bodies didn’t want, but they’ve gone away and still kept that name “elite.”
“That’s only a minor thing but we have spoken to FFV and we don’t feel as though that they’ve had any answers for any questions that any of the clubs have put together, and they’re stilling progressing to roll this out, which is just beyond us, really.”
Mamo also didn’t rule out the possibility of joining a non-FIFA recognised competition such as VicSoccer should the NPL go ahead in 2014.
“Yes, we can leave [the VicSoccer option] open. If we still want to participate in football, and we are a football club, then if FFA or FFV doesn’t come to the party or we’re not able to participate within [their framework], we’ll look at any other options that’s available to us.”

http://www.mfootball.com.au/green-gully-join-knights-in-npl-rebuff/