Source: Radio New Zealand
Oxford say fees to Mainland Football are crippling the club. SUPPLIED
A small South Island football club is taking legal action against its local federation, alleging it is being charged excessive fees that are pushing rural clubs to the brink.
The move follows earlier RNZ reporting on rising participation costs in sport and the pressure on families and community clubs.
Oxford Football in North Canterbury, a club of just 145 members, is challenging Mainland Football through the Disputes Tribunal, arguing its $15,000 in annual levies are unsustainable and deliver little value.
Keith Gilby, the club’s president, said 74 percent of Oxford’s fixed outgoings now go towards “upstream fees”.
What began as a ‘please explain’ has escalated to legal proceedings, with Oxford alleging the regional body is failing its obligations to its members.
“We don’t receive a cent from Mainland Football or any form of support. It’s a substantial chunk and on top of that we’re providing shirts, the equipment, all the balls, nets and goals, maintaining our own pitches,” said Gilby.
“We operate out of a container so to spend $15,000 each year to allow 150 players just to play in a competition is an incredible amount of money for a small club like Oxford.”
Mainland Football has said it gives equal treatment to the nearly 20,000 members of its clubs across the South Island.
Oxford formally requested a justification for the fees.
“We’re not saying that we shouldn’t have to pay fees. We’re saying those fees should be reasonable and based on value that each individual receives from the game,” Gilby said.
Oxford FC say that 74 percent of their fixed outgoings now go towards “upstream fees”. SUPPLIED
Mainland Football chief executive Martin Field-Dodgson said the federation rejects accusations of price gouging.
“I’m a big sport lover, so I want kids playing sport, and if they choose football, then hopefully they have a wicked time and that they’re getting access into the game is as easy as it can be,” he said.
“Fees are part of that service delivery from Mainland into clubs. Football is funded through a wide range of sources. What we’re trying to do is to keep things as reasonable as possible.”
Mainland said that charges to clubs are made up of two components that apply across all clubs – affiliation and competition fees.
“Affiliation fees are charged on a per player basis and support the core services that make the football system work. Competition fees cover the direct costs of administering and delivering the competitions a club participates in.”
After failing to get the answers they sought, Oxford lodged a formal complaint with the Disputes Tribunal and is now in mediation with Mainland.
“We made a decision back in September when the latest round of pricing was released,” said Gilby.
“We felt that Mainland Football are failing in delivering their objectives to us. Unfortunately it got to the stage where Mainland Football refused to talk to us any further, so we lodged a legal complaint with the Disputes Tribunal. We’re now in mediation with them to hopefully achieve an outcome outside of a court process.”
The mediation will take place on Friday.
Field-Dodgson welcomed the chance to discuss Oxford’s concerns.
“Ultimately it’s a good opportunity to get in a room and just have a chat about the situation we’re in, discuss where they’re coming from and then obviously where the federation is coming from.
“We really pride ourselves on our relationship with our clubs. We are in regular communication with the clubs, got four whole club meeting opportunities in the year plus an AGM. Having thriving sustainable clubs is one of our strategic pillars.”
‘Lone wolf’
Not all clubs share Oxford’s concerns.
Tim Kelly of Hurunui Rangers club in Amberley said Oxford did not have widespread support.
“He’s a lone wolf. He’s out there trying to nail Mainland because thinks that they’re charging too much. Nobody else I know thinks that. The money that we’re charged by Mainland is not the principal issue for rural clubs. Relative per head, it’s very reasonable.”
Hurunui has about 200 registered players for 2026, and Kelly said the club receives strong support from Mainland.
“Last weekend we had someone from Mainland spend the whole day with us coaching our coaches. They recognise the issues we have as a rural club and they help us out as best they can.”
He said Oxford emailed clubs about their concerns, but Hurunui stood by its federation.
“Our club emailed them back and said, ‘we don’t actually agree with you. We’ve told Mainland that we support them.’”
Kelly also suggest Oxford’s financial position was partly self-inflicted.
“They may have got into trouble by not charging fees for a few years to any kids. If there’s now a deficit, that’s of their own making.”
Hurunui said it benefited from hardship support, including Mainland’s Scorching Goal fund, set up after the 2011 earthquake, and NZ Football’s assistance schemes.
“We apply every year for support for certain kids to have their fees paid and we’ve never been turned down. So we certainly can’t see what the issue is in that regard.
“We recognise that these are challenging times financially, but you can’t expect to run a club and not have to charge.”
National funding model
Field-Dodgson said any changes to the funding model would require a nationwide conversation.
“The funding model is what happens up and down the country. So that’s a heck of a conversation to have. If we just say, ‘okay, we’re going to try reduce or remove player registration fees, where’s that funding going to come from?’ Otherwise, service delivery would be drastically reduced.”
He said the comparisons with rugby were misleading.
“Our game’s funded differently from rugby which I see getting used as a comparison. We don’t have a Silver Lake deal to help keep costs low.
“We’d love a whole lot of funding to come down or a whole lot more commercial partners but ultimately we don’t have that. We work with our clubs to keep the financial pressure on families as low as we can, whilst trying to deliver a really wicked experience for those that are involved in the game.
“In this instance, we’ve got a club potentially with a different viewpoint. We’ve got our funds that helps those that may have financial pressures and that’s eligible for anyone to come and apply for.”
Oxford want to see a change to the football funding model. SUPPLIED
For smaller clubs like Oxford, the core issue remains value.
Gilby insists there’s negligible return and input from the national body and regional body in return for their $15,000.
“We have to pay these fees. If we don’t pay these fees, Mainland Football have the obligation to end our membership, which means that we would cease to exist as a club,” he said.
“We actually pay competition entry fees as well as team fees as well as individual fees that the players pay for registration.”
He said when they approached Mainland informing the fees were becoming too much, they were told to look at their own costs.
“Most clubs out there that I know are already doing as much of that as possible.”
Gilby said there are simply no more costs to be cut without closing their doors.
Oxford understands the reality of rural clubs lack of financial pull.
“The the main streamlined competitions are the one that attracts the revenue, people, growth. It’s how the game has been developed and that’s how this pricing model has been developed.”
However, with football being bigger than it’s ever been in New Zealand, Gilby was questioning where their piece of the pie was.
“We haven’t seen any of that yet, and I don’t think it’s likely that we will see it.”
Free for kids, but at a cost
Oxford runs fee free football for its players up to the age of 10.
However, these players are not registered with the national body.
Oxford FC has approximately 150 members. supplied
“We decided we’d approach Mainland Football, again and again they were unwilling to assist. So we made the decision that we were going to try fee free for kids. But this is an in- house programme and we do not register them into Mainland Football. We’ve had to make the really hard decision of actually stopping registering kids to be able to afford to allow them to keep playing.”
Gilby said while it may seem counterintuitive, the move was made to keep kids at the club.
“What we were actually doing was stopping the haemorrhaging of the money, we were stopping the parents having to pay fees, and us having to top up those fees to be able to afford the registrations.”
He said the move is saving about $5000 a year and has been support by local funding and sponsorship.
City bias?
Gilby believed that the football funding model was obsolete, and left rural communities behind.
“Football has always been a bottom up funded model, but it’s now getting to the stage where the small clubs like ours can no longer afford to sustain the required payments. We’re looking to understand how the pricing is put together. We believe that there is little connection with the rural clubs, little connection between the strategy of and the objectives of the constitution. We have no visibility or transparency over that.”
The rural community faced financial barriers not experienced in the cities, Gilby said.
“For us to be able to compete in Mainland Football leagues, our players are travelling 100km round trips to play in Christchurch. With fuel prices, it’s just getting far more expensive.”
He argues larger urban clubs are better place to absorb costs and influence decision-making.
Oxford runs fee free football for its players up to the age of 10. SUPPLIED
“Its principal benefit allows for big clubs to become richer because they get to put all of their costs across a much higher number of players to support the high performance teams, which attract really good sponsorship from mainstream companies.
“Then those clubs are then able to vote their members on as board members into Mainland Football. The opportunity for small clubs and rural clubs to be able to affect meaningful change within the organisation is limited.”
Mainland covers about 16,000 members across a wide region from Ashburton to Golden Bay.
Field-Dodgson said delivering consistent service across such a large area was challenging but a priority.
“Our goal is to ensure every player has a similar experience, wherever they are. If there are concerns, yeah, let’s have a chat about it and see where we can improve, we can always try and do better.”
He remains optimistic a resolution with Oxford can be reached.
“It is where it is and we can get opportunity to sit in a room with Oxford next week and hopefully we can find some common ground and move the discussions forward and then we can rip into delivering an awesome season.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
