Northern NSW Football is delighted to announce the reunification of the game across the Northern Inland region with disaffiliated clubs to return to sanctioned football.
NNSWF has engaged in extensive consultation with disaffiliated clubs, mostly from the Armidale area, and existing members of NNSWF – Northern Inland over the last 12 months to reunite the football family.
Those discussions progressed significantly towards the end of this year, with NNSWF meeting with clubs.
The result is the return of disaffiliated clubs to sanction football as part of NNSWF – Northern Inland. These clubs include Armidale City Westside FC, Demon Knights FC, East Armidale FC, Guyra United FC, Norths United FC, South Armidale United FC, The Armidale School (TAS) and Uralla United FC.
Background
Northern Inland Football informed NNSWF in January 2020 that some mostly Armidale-based clubs planned to disaffiliate and transition to an independent competition run by the University of New England (SportUNE).
These clubs officially disaffiliated a month later and have been playing non-sanctioned football since.
In January 2021, NNSWF assumed direct responsibility for the administration, growth, development and promotion of the game throughout the Northern Inland region after NIF was wound up, with the new, unincorporated body NNSWF – Northern Inland established in its place.
New Era
The new era of a united Northern Inland region will see:
- A male and female Northern Inland Premier League open to senior clubs in the Northern Inland region
- An additional NNSWF – Northern Inland resource to ensure there will be people on the ground in Tamworth and Armidale every weekend
- The return of support and education for coaches, match officials and volunteers in Armidale
- Players eligible to be part of the Talented Player Pathway including TSP and NYC
- Clubs eligible to enter Australia Cup
- Clubs can apply for NSW Football Legacy Participation and Facility Grants
- Vast majority of junior competitions across Northern Inland unaffected with a base calendar of competitions
Reunited
NNSWF General Manager Football Operations Liam Bentley said it was a great moment for football in Northern Inland.
“There has been extensive consultation with the disaffiliated clubs and the existing members of the unincorporated association of NNSWF – Northern Inland regarding things like competition structures. It was important to ensure the vast majority of competitions won’t be affected but the reunification of the game allows the top-level competitions to combine. It also gives us exciting opportunities for things like pre-season cups, post-season inter-district finals,” Bentley said.
“One of the other big things for disaffiliated clubs was when they weren’t part of the football family, they couldn’t participate in MiniRoos gala days outside their own region. They couldn’t go to Tamworth or Gunnedah or Inverell. So this opens up a lot more opportunities for those MiniRoos age groups.
“Because the mostly Armidale clubs were playing unsanctioned football, we couldn’t provide support and education for referees so that is going to be a huge drive and focus for us to get match officials back up to speed. There have been quite a few changes to the laws of the game over the last few years so that is important for us. And the same goes for coaching and volunteering where there will be a real drive from us to upskill people that have missed out for a few years.”
NNSWF Northern Inland Regional Co-Ordinator Mitchell O’Keefe said the move was a huge positive for football in the region.
“I’m really looking forward to spending much more time in Armidale,” O’Keefe said.
“It’s really exciting to reunite the region again. It’s brilliant to bring some really strong, traditional clubs in Armidale back to the fold. I’m really excited to get things like coach, referee and volunteer courses back to participants in our region.”
Bentley said transparency would be a key value moving forward.
“We will be totally open. We have very clear disciplinary systems in the region now which have already been shown to work. There’s a real strength in the process of the disciplinary, transparency and how the competitions are run. It’s not like it was previously in the region,” Bentley said.
“We are running football in Northern Inland how we run our NPL competitions. There are principles that we use to govern competitions and we apply them across the board.
“And it couldn’t have come at a better time with the Socceroos’ success at the World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year. It’s a really exciting time. Why wouldn’t you want to be part of the football family? Football is in a good place and we’re absolutely delighted our Armidale clubs are back part of the football family.”
