Dear Clubs,

As we begin week 4 of the lockdown, I thought it was time for an update as to where Capital Football (CF) is up to as a business.

Like the rest of NZ, we have been in lockdown & staff have been working from home. We successfully applied for the initial government wage subsidy & as from the 7^th April started a consultation process with staff as to how the months of April, May & June will work.

What was proposed, & agreed by all staff, is that from the beginning of May, CF will move to a 4-day week & staff will be paid @ 80% of their contracted salary & likewise into June, where the percentage will drop to 60% & CF will move to a 3-day week. Please note that from May, CF will be closed on a Friday; decisions regarding closure days in June have yet to be made. It has been made clear to staff that all options remain open as we work our way through these times.

CF is working hard behind the scenes with various councils & summer sports to look at all options which may necessitate extending the season, this includes keeping abreast of the Ministry of Health’s guidelines & ensuring compliance to such. All of this is a moving target; however, I am confident that we are doing as good of a job as possible in our scenario planning (both operationally & financially) & information flow to our members. We will continue to keep our standards high as we know that is what our clubs expect.

You can rest assured we are looking at every possible option to be able to deliver to our clubs a football season; community sport will be at the forefront of getting some sort of normalcy back into society & CF plans to be at the head of that. However it is understood that, to some, sport is seen as somewhat of a “luxury” whilst to others it is the thing they look forward to most; we will be respectful in our messaging to all of our members points of view.

I trust you are feeling as informed as possible & are enjoying some of the initiatives coming out from the team; there’ll be more to come.

In closing I’d like to reiterate that we do not know what the future holds but we can (& will) continue to plan & refine those plans based on information available to us.

Take best care.

Richard Reid,
Capital Football Chief Executive

Article added: Wednesday 15 April 2020