well, were all "on hold" obviously...... Never say never as they say. Got this morning from my Association, was interesting but obviously were under control by cod19. The Board would like to thank you (and your delegate) for your attendance last night to our virtual meeting - a difficult medium to gauge the sentiment of the attendees, but for the moment the new 'norm' in communication. As everyone is saying, these unprecedented times call for new experiences and as I mentioned unfortunately the rainy day has finally come for football. We hear and empathise with all clubs concerns on de-registrations, refunds and the administration of that process should it be required if no season is playable. We are still hopeful and committed to organising some competition (in any format) when given the opportunity. At this stage with the further suspension of football activities to 31 May, we are planning on a season commencing on 6/7 June. (And further to typing this email this morning the Police Commissioner's announcement of social distancing till the end of June may mean a 4/5 July start).
The Board met again after the call to address some of your concerns and will of course continue to meet regularly to discuss ongoing developments as they arise. The minutes of the meeting will be distributed to delegates however the Board wanted to provide this email update to Presidents. We have also included for those that missed it, the NWSF COVID-19 paper distributed by XXXXX in the meeting invitation.
We encourage all clubs to conduct their own due diligence and 'worst case scenario' should the season not proceed. For some, that position will be worse than others depending on the number of minis teams, expenses already incurred for the season (such as new kits), and any cash reserves they may hold. As discussed, NWSF has indicated should the season not proceed at all, we will not be charging players the NWSF component of their registration fee, a significant loss of income for the Association. There will most likely be some charge from FFA and/or FNSW. As an Association, depending on the viability of clubs we could potentially assist with that cost as well or pass that onto clubs/players as an administration fee. Of course the difficulty is we do not know what that charge would be as yet.
We did not discuss the potential loss for the Association last night however the current cash reserves are $1.4 million so we are, in many ways and compared to other Associations in a sound financial position. If there is no season at all (and we return the nomination fees already paid by clubs) and we do not pay FFA/FNSW any money we anticipate a loss of somewhere between $500,000-$600,000. Please be assured we have reviewed and will continue to review the budget line by line to remove any non-essential spend. Our financial year commenced 1 October 2019 and many expenses have already been incurred however we are applying for all subsidies available from the Government and will continue to take steps to minimise spend.
In 2019 the fee paid to FNSW (which includes the FFA component) was $900,000, around a third was insurance. FNSW have indicated the insurance fees will not be as high this year due to reduced available claim days. We understand club's concerns about not being able to fully refund their players however some FNSW costs are likely to be incurred, even if minimum insurance/administration costs. Potential options for a payment to FNSW include using the nomination fees already paid from clubs to NWSF (expected $500K) or NWSF setting a per player amount payable as a fee. The risk is any shortfall would be further borne by the Association. To help us with this decision we would request clubs provide either commentary on their financial position or a finance statement which outlines a worst case scenario of no season and full refunds to XXXXXXXXXX by the end of April , which of course will remain confidential. That will enable us to formulate a more precise refund policy which can be used for consistency across all clubs.
Our office team have also offered their assistance for clubs to process refunds (e.g. obtaining bank details from members) should the season not proceed and if FFA do not provide an alternative via PlayFootball.
Again, the above scenario is the 'worst case' scenario with no football. As we discussed last night and we re-iterate again, if you can hold off providing refunds we encourage you to do so. Our position remains aligned to FFA and FNSW that currently the season is postponed not cancelled. We could still run a 1 round competition from 1 July (with help from Councils) and we encourage you to remain positive with your members providing the same message.
Love Football
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