Matters to stay in hands of board

Damen Francis

December 21 2012

Shepparton News

Goulburn North East Football Association will continue to administer local soccer competitions, after a proposal to hand responsibility over to Football Federation Victoria was declined.

The association’s member clubs opted against the move and a new board was elected at Monday night’s annual general meeting in Shepparton.

All clubs were invited to a meeting late last month, where FFV general manager of football Tim Frampton gave a presentation about FFV administration.

After an open discussion all but one club voted in favour of retaining GNEFA administration.

Frank Trimboli, who was re-elected unopposed as association president for a third term on Monday night, said although the state governing body possessed greater access to resources, there was a common desire to ‘‘keep it local’’.

‘‘The proposal came from FFV to do the administration if there was no-one in the area that wanted to do it,’’ Trimboli said.

‘‘The clubs agreed to look at what FFV could do for us.

‘‘We put it to the clubs and because we don’t want to be relying on the same people all the time, but people stepped up.’’

A new board is now in place, with the positions of secretary and treasurer filled by Luke Slater and Frank Papallo, who were elected unopposed.

The remaining two director positions required a ballot, with Jimmy Kalafatis and Michael Crisera receiving majority votes.

However, Trimboli said the decision did not mark the end of FFV’s involvement in the administration of the Shepparton-based competition.

‘‘They will continue to manage the tribunal process, as they did this year, and I’ll be talking to them about managing other areas as well,’’ he said.

‘‘For certain components we will manage, while others we will outsource to FFV and we’ll try to build a closer relationship.

‘‘In my wrap-up speech I made my recommendations, that we start to transition towards putting an operational level below the board.

‘‘That would let us focus on strategic development of the game and rules of competition and things like that.’’

Another general meeting of the clubs will be held next month, after which it is expected fixtures for next season will be released.