North Coast Football (NCF) will provide over $50,000 worth of financial support to clubs to help them deal with the ongoing impacts of the autumn rain deluge and ongoing wet weather conditions.
NCF’s 24 clubs on the Coffs Coast and in the Clarence Valley have been negatively impacted by the poor weather over the last four months. The wet weather and resulting saturated grounds have forced several delays to the start of many competitions, and hundreds of matches have been postponed to later dates. Many teams have had little to no training or matches.
The financial relief will be applied equally to all Clarence Valley and Coffs Coast clubs to cover additional expenditure and lost income due to:
- Little to no fundraising such as canteen, raffles and gala-days
- Additional upkeep of grounds
- Registrations not meeting expectations (particularly in the Clarence Valley)
- Additional costs for alternative training and playing venues for some clubs
The funds will be split between clubs based on their player numbers. The relief will be funded from the grassroots savings of NCF and income from the Coffs Football 6’s program. NCF receives no top-down funding from the national body nor any funds flowing from top tier broadcast rights and sponsorship.
NCF is working with clubs to deliver a complete or near-complete football season by extending the season a month into October for some competitions. NCF has also contacted all local governments in the area seeking financial relief and concessions for ground hire. Further, Northern NSW Football has delivered financial and material assistance to two Clarence Valley clubs significantly impacted by the floods.
Comments by Andrew Woodward, General Manager, North Coast Football
This year is the most challenging start to a football season ever and comes on top of two seasons of dealing with a global pandemic. This financial support will ease the burden on clubs and their volunteer committees.
Clubs are under enormous pressure financially, and this $50,000 from NCF will in some way ease the squeeze on club bank balances. The volunteers that run the clubs are working hard in a demanding environment. They’re doing a great job of getting players playing when they can.
There’s a lot of frustration amongst our 5,000 plus participants who just want to play football. There’s no simple answer. We just have to be patient and work our way through this.
ENDS
