Melbourne Knights Football Club is pleased to announce that our application for the 2014 National Premier League Victoria (NPLV) has been successful. The club was accepted into the first division of the two tier competition which is scheduled to kick off on the 14th of March.
Initially, the club had opted out of the restructure due to certain parts of the criteria. An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) was held on the 26th of May 2013, where an overwhelming 86% of members voted against entering an Expression of Interest (EOI) to join the new competition.
Since then, extensive consultation between the clubs, Football Federation Victoria (FFV) and Football Federation Australia (FFA) have taken place, resulting in changes to the criteria and relaxed conditions for the 2014 season.
Club President Andelko Cimera was not surprised by the FFVs decision to accept the Knights and claims its business as usual.
“I never thought there was any doubt about the Knights being accepted in the NPL,” Mr Cimera said.
“We pretty much met the criteria without needing to make any major changes. We already have an ‘A’ class facility, we regularly promote our young players, and we have a technical director who has already been working with our juniors for over a year.”
When asked about meeting the Player Points System (PPS) requirements, first team coach Andrew Marth believed the new changes would pose no major problems.
“A large part of our squad has been at the club for three, four, five years,” Marth said.
“Some have even been here since day one. Add to that the youth players that we promote to the first team, I think we will comfortably be under the 275 point limit”.
Out of the current senior squad, at least nine first team players have played in the youth system before making the step up.
Membership package information will be made available in the coming days.
You can learn more about the PPS and competition criteria at www.footballfedvic.com.au