It’s one of the lesser known requirements of ASB Premiership competition that all competing clubs must not only provide a printed matchday programme for every home fixture – but also that photocopied pages are prohibited.
That’s actually a shame in some cases, because for those who like to mark player starts and movements on their programme, a lot of the semi-gloss paper used in some instances is hardly user-friendly for the pen.
Clause 14 of NZ Football regulation 10 is actually very prescriptive, and I’d wager very few national league clubs in recent years have completely complied with it.
Programmes must be in A5 format, have a minimum of 16 pages, feature the correct registered playing names of the competing clubs, full list of playing squads, playing strip colours, match official names, a current league table and forthcoming league fixtures.
NZF commits to provide a colour cover for all programmes and reserves all space on the cover for advertising purposes in connection with the national league – though it has been encouraging to see Waibop United this summer break the mould and use its own cover and run the “cover’ advertising inside in full colour.
So far, so good. Where most programmes fall down with the requirements is in clause 1.2.10, which requires “a statistics page as per Appendix A.”
This basically sets out a table with match results accompanied by player appearances and substitutions etc. Few, if any matchday programmes have done this in recent years. Which is a pity, because such statistical data is often the raw material of informed discussion.
Given the manner in which we love to beat ourselves up in football in New Zealand, it should be no surpise that if clubs fail to produce a matchday programme, they risk a $500 fine (which is probably still a cheap option given printing costs these days).
Or if they fail to comply with the all the stipulated detail – such as the statistics page – there is a $250 fine.
So the next time the national body is short of a dollar there is plenty of low-hanging fruit to be had there at the moment. Curiously even Wanderers SC – which is under NZ Football’s umbrella this summer – fails to follow the stats page rules in an otherwise worthy matchday programme.
The regulations are at least silent on the question on how much, if anything, should be charged for a programme.
NZ Football also retains the right to add content requirements to any match programme, and at the start of the inaugural season of the league in 2004-05 league manager Glynn Taylor used to despatch a dull, bland column for inclusion, though this mercifully fell by the wayside quite early on.
There is nothing wrong in theory with a national-office contribution to a national league programme. It's just that in practice the writers are always hoplessly constrained from saying anything remotely interesting, newsworthy or funny, and end up having little to add beyond bland, glib, platitudes.
That’s actually a shame in some cases, because for those who like to mark player starts and movements on their programme, a lot of the semi-gloss paper used in some instances is hardly user-friendly for the pen.
Clause 14 of NZ Football regulation 10 is actually very prescriptive, and I’d wager very few national league clubs in recent years have completely complied with it.
Programmes must be in A5 format, have a minimum of 16 pages, feature the correct registered playing names of the competing clubs, full list of playing squads, playing strip colours, match official names, a current league table and forthcoming league fixtures.
NZF commits to provide a colour cover for all programmes and reserves all space on the cover for advertising purposes in connection with the national league – though it has been encouraging to see Waibop United this summer break the mould and use its own cover and run the “cover’ advertising inside in full colour.
So far, so good. Where most programmes fall down with the requirements is in clause 1.2.10, which requires “a statistics page as per Appendix A.”
This basically sets out a table with match results accompanied by player appearances and substitutions etc. Few, if any matchday programmes have done this in recent years. Which is a pity, because such statistical data is often the raw material of informed discussion.
Given the manner in which we love to beat ourselves up in football in New Zealand, it should be no surpise that if clubs fail to produce a matchday programme, they risk a $500 fine (which is probably still a cheap option given printing costs these days).
Or if they fail to comply with the all the stipulated detail – such as the statistics page – there is a $250 fine.
So the next time the national body is short of a dollar there is plenty of low-hanging fruit to be had there at the moment. Curiously even Wanderers SC – which is under NZ Football’s umbrella this summer – fails to follow the stats page rules in an otherwise worthy matchday programme.
The regulations are at least silent on the question on how much, if anything, should be charged for a programme.
NZ Football also retains the right to add content requirements to any match programme, and at the start of the inaugural season of the league in 2004-05 league manager Glynn Taylor used to despatch a dull, bland column for inclusion, though this mercifully fell by the wayside quite early on.
There is nothing wrong in theory with a national-office contribution to a national league programme. It's just that in practice the writers are always hoplessly constrained from saying anything remotely interesting, newsworthy or funny, and end up having little to add beyond bland, glib, platitudes.