Sports Auckland 2024 A-League Team

Bulgaria’s Arda Kardzhali apologise for mourning former player who isn’t dead​

A Bulgarian football side have apologised to a former player after holding a minute’s silence to honour his death, only to realise during the match he was still alive.

Arda Kardzhali mourned former player Petko Ganchev over the weekend with a minute’s silence while players from both sides lined up near the centre circle.

Before the match ended, Arda Kardzhali‘s official Facebook page revealed that Ganchev was still alive.

“The management of PFC Arda would like to express a huge apology to the former Arda player Petko Ganchev and his relatives after the club received wrong information about his death,” the club wrote.

“We wish Petko Ganchev many more years of good health and to enjoy the success of Arda.”

www.nzherald.co.nz

Football side mistakenly mourns player who isn’t dead

Arda Kardzhali held a minute’s silence, then learned Petko Ganchev was alive.
www.nzherald.co.nz www.nzherald.co.nz
 

NZWarriors.com

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I'm so torn on all of this.

The Phoenix have been plugging away and have put football on the map in NZ. It is one of the most popular games in the country now. And then Auckland comes along with a rich foreign owner with ties to the Premier League and gets all the glory in their first year.

Imagine Christchurch comes into the NRL with American Football owners buys the Alex Paulsen equivalent (Leka) off us and wins the NRL in their first year after so many years of struggle for the club.

I really hope the Phoenix have a good year next year.
 
Ever Hopeful said:
I'm so torn on all of this.

The Phoenix have been plugging away and have put football on the map in NZ. It is one of the most popular games in the country now. And then Auckland comes along with a rich foreign owner with ties to the Premier League and gets all the glory in their first year.

Imagine Christchurch comes into the NRL with American Football owners buys the Alex Paulsen equivalent (Leka) off us and wins the NRL in their first year after so many years of struggle for the club.

I really hope the Phoenix have a good year next year.
Click to expand...
Not only that but the Phoenix let him go early because they thought he was going to the UK premier league. But instead it was all an elaborate rug pull via there billionaire owner. The fans are also weirdly aggressive in the occasions I've interacted with them. IDK, it's probably irrational but I just dislike em. But I enjoy Aussies being beaten more, so hope they win the whole thing.
 
Ever Hopeful said:
I'm so torn on all of this.

The Phoenix have been plugging away and have put football on the map in NZ. It is one of the most popular games in the country now. And then Auckland comes along with a rich foreign owner with ties to the Premier League and gets all the glory in their first year.

Imagine Christchurch comes into the NRL with American Football owners buys the Alex Paulsen equivalent (Leka) off us and wins the NRL in their first year after so many years of struggle for the club.

I really hope the Phoenix have a good year next year.
Click to expand...

2nd last year on the table when I checked. That’s commerable.

I know in the youth academy leagues they are still the best in nation and well respected…,.
 
Ever Hopeful said:
I'm so torn on all of this.

The Phoenix have been plugging away and have put football on the map in NZ. It is one of the most popular games in the country now. And then Auckland comes along with a rich foreign owner with ties to the Premier League and gets all the glory in their first year.

Imagine Christchurch comes into the NRL with American Football owners buys the Alex Paulsen equivalent (Leka) off us and wins the NRL in their first year after so many years of struggle for the club.

I really hope the Phoenix have a good year next year.
Click to expand...

I’ve been supporting Phoenix forever (not a die hard just casual) and it’s a shame they fell off the cliff this year, the recruitment was a clown show this season good players going to other clubs, their coach’s second year syndrome also probably

Was weird seeing how Paulson is playing for them, sounds like a Moses level conspiracy, sad. Don’t mind where the owner come from

That’s why I don’t want a second NRL team until we win it first, when done properly and willing we will always have first crack at the elite juniors
 
A league is a weird comp, the phoenix sold 3 or 4 really good (by nz standards) young players and replaced them with basically nothing.

It’s a comp of how can you convince players that are probably too good for this league, to stick with you.

Wellington always going to have a hard time with that.

Auckland winning from scratch would be remarkable though
 
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JustLikeStartingOver said:
A league is a weird comp, the phoenix sold 3 or 4 really good (by nz standards) young players and replaced them with basically nothing.

It’s a comp of how can you convince players that are probably too good for this league, to stick with you.

Wellington always going to have a hard time with that.

Auckland winning from scratch would be remarkable though
Click to expand...
Yeah i was a bit surprised the salary cap is only 3m. And they've got this weird thing about how it rolls over every 3 years as well, so you can spend 6m one year and then have to spread the next 3 over the next 2 years... And then this stuff as well:
"Clubs could have two marquee players on their books who were fully exempt from the salary cap; two designated players who earned between A300,000 to $A600,000 each but were not counted in the salary cap; a guest player who sat outside the salary cap but could only play for about half the season and met other eligibility criteria; up to four homegrown players who were fully exempt from the salary cap if they were aged under-23 and had come through the club's youth programme; an unlimted number of loyalty players that had played 10 or more consecutive seasons at the club in order for up to 50 percent of their salary to be put outside of the cap; and up to 16 scholarship players that sit outside the salary cap." - RNZ
But mainly this part: "Under the current rules expansion clubs, like Auckland FC, have been allowed to spend more than the cap for two seasons."

There comp seems quite over engineered IMO. And purposely so. And filled with possible holes and ways to get around things if you have a lot of resources.
 
roguei said:
Yeah i was a bit surprised the salary cap is only 3m. And they've got this weird thing about how it rolls over every 3 years as well, so you can spend 6m one year and then have to spread the next 3 over the next 2 years... And then this stuff as well:
"Clubs could have two marquee players on their books who were fully exempt from the salary cap; two designated players who earned between A300,000 to $A600,000 each but were not counted in the salary cap; a guest player who sat outside the salary cap but could only play for about half the season and met other eligibility criteria; up to four homegrown players who were fully exempt from the salary cap if they were aged under-23 and had come through the club's youth programme; an unlimted number of loyalty players that had played 10 or more consecutive seasons at the club in order for up to 50 percent of their salary to be put outside of the cap; and up to 16 scholarship players that sit outside the salary cap." - RNZ
But mainly this part: "Under the current rules expansion clubs, like Auckland FC, have been allowed to spend more than the cap for two seasons."

There comp seems quite over engineered IMO. And purposely so. And filled with possible holes and ways to get around things if you have a lot of resources.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s a strange one, good Aussie veterans can go from team to team depending on who wants to spend the money and go for it that year. Imports are real wild cards, though they nailed getting Sakai.

The phoenix are also poor (renting the cake tin for 6000 people is not a good business) and tight fisted, though they do a good job with their academy.
 
The Paulsen conspiracy is nonsense.
Phoenix 100% knew who they were selling to (Bournemouth and their group) and happily said yes with big dollar signs in their eyes.
Phoenix also agreed to have the Caceres Rule removed which allowed Bournemouth to loan Paulsen to Auckland.

When David Dome was asked about it in the days after, he kept talking about how it will add extra spice to the first derby. Because he knew that game would be close to a sell out, and a 25k crowd for them is apparently their magic bullet to a break even season. Which is all he cares about. A club with no ambition, other than to break even and keep on keeping on.
 
Billyspleen75 said:
The Paulsen conspiracy is nonsense.
Phoenix 100% knew who they were selling to (Bournemouth and their group) and happily said yes with big dollar signs in their eyes.
Phoenix also agreed to have the Caceres Rule removed which allowed Bournemouth to loan Paulsen to Auckland.

When David Dome was asked about it in the days after, he kept talking about how it will add extra spice to the first derby. Because he knew that game would be close to a sell out, and a 25k crowd for them is apparently their magic bullet to a break even season. Which is all he cares about. A club with no ambition, other than to break even and keep on keeping on.
Click to expand...
Fair enough mate, will take you're word on it. Honestly never really looked into it to much and was only going off of things ive heard from other or read in the papers. But good to get another perspective on the topic for once.
 
I think the cuts to the salary cap from the 23/24 season made it a pretty ideal time to launch a team.
The glamour Australian teams had never had weaker squads.

Big achievement by Auckland FC - but I wonder how long that league can keep going with some of the attendances the clubs are getting.
 
JustLikeStartingOver said:
Imports are real wild cards, though they nailed getting Sakai.
Click to expand...
My physio also works for Auckland City FC (top Auckland club, not A league). He always gives me a bit of goss when I go in as he also works for the Black Caps etc. I hate cricket, so we end up talking about football.

Anyway, we got talking about Auckland FC. Amongst other things, he mentioned that a year or so ago, Sakai reached out to some of his contacts here, as he was wanting to spend time in NZ. Not playing football, just post-career living. The right people were connected, and swooped, and Auckland FC landed a 74-cap international on next to nothing.

The club just had a legend fall from the skies into their laps. Not just a great footballer - a great pinup for the club
 
defensivebomb said:
My physio also works for Auckland City FC (top Auckland club, not A league). He always gives me a bit of goss when I go in as he also works for the Black Caps etc. I hate cricket, so we end up talking about football.

Anyway, we got talking about Auckland FC. Amongst other things, he mentioned that a year or so ago, Sakai reached out to some of his contacts here, as he was wanting to spend time in NZ. Not playing football, just post-career living. The right people were connected, and swooped, and Auckland FC landed a 74-cap international on next to nothing.

The club just had a legend fall from the skies into their laps. Not just a great footballer - a great pinup for the club
Click to expand...

Wow sounds like he was just trying to raise his family here lol, give him a citizenship for the All Whites 🤣
 

defensivebomb said:
My physio also works for Auckland City FC (top Auckland club, not A league). He always gives me a bit of goss when I go in as he also works for the Black Caps etc. I hate cricket, so we end up talking about football.

Anyway, we got talking about Auckland FC. Amongst other things, he mentioned that a year or so ago, Sakai reached out to some of his contacts here, as he was wanting to spend time in NZ. Not playing football, just post-career living. The right people were connected, and swooped, and Auckland FC landed a 74-cap international on next to nothing.

The club just had a legend fall from the skies into their laps. Not just a great footballer - a great pinup for the club
Click to expand...
Amazing context.
I've heard in many interviews Corica and Becker say something along the lines of "When Sakai fell in our laps" or "When Sakai's came across our desk, we just had to sign him". And I always wondered what they had meant by that. This makes perfect sense.

Did he happen to mention why he was specifically looking to come to New Zealand?
 
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