Fencibles & Eastern Suburbs Resource Sharing Agreement

This partnership between Fencibles and Eastern Suburbs has been created to meet the ever-increasing challenges that football clubs are facing in delivering quality programmes and experiences for all of their members and stakeholders.

The innovative partnership is aimed at utilising shared resources to enhance all aspects of the club from social football through to recognised player and coach pathways. Whilst the partnership will bring the two clubs closer together, a large focus will be placed on preserving and respecting each other’s unique identities. NZ Football have introduced the FIFA Club Licensing system in recent years with the overall aim of raising the level of club football.

One of the key goals in that process is to increase the level of professionalism in club football through strengthening their technical and sporting development. A significant component of this criteria is the recruitment and development of a suitably qualified Director of Football supported by qualified coaches in each age group.

By successfully meeting these standards clubs are awarded licencing status which provides quality assurance and other benefits to their members in terms of consistent access to certain levels of competition.

Successfully meeting and sustaining a Club License requires a significant amount of human and financial resourcing in the short and long term. The sustainability of these resources and programmes is a huge challenge for all clubs and requires fresh thinking and a different way of approaching the business demands of club football.

The financial impact of the COVID virus has added greater relevancy to developing new practices and strategies to not only ensure the long-term viability of sporting organisations, but also to allow clubs to keep evolving and delivering improved programmes and experiences.