Tasmania United

Obviously its only early days at the moment, however I thought it worth posting for discussion.

Once the club is established I think it would be great to set up some affiliate relationships here and there. Firstly to provide a place for Tasmanians to develop who have not reched NYL standard and secondly to provide a possible means of obtaining good loan players.

Personally I think we should have a Victorian Premier League affiliate and work with the FFT to develop players from both the club and who are above the level of the Tasmanian statewide premier league sides (when they are up and running). A good partnership agreement with such a side could well prove to be an excellent pathway for Tasmanian talent who do not come through the NYL side.  

Obviously through our relationship with FFT, TUFC will have some kind of relationship with all Tasmanian clubs, the TIS, Tasmanian football academies and schools at all levels. It would be worth getting rolemodels in the schools at every chance including regular coaching clinics. I think the club should have a community relations officer/coach for this purpose.

Personally I think it would be good to have initially one overseas relationship, although in the future two might be an option. I know that a lot of A-League sides have considered such relationships with Asian Clubs. Given our climate down here I would instead recommend we look for an English side and see if we can get some of their up and coming players on the field once we are running.

Perhaps in time a cross-Tasman tie could be a prospect as well, with an annual pre-season match between TUFC and a New Zealand side (preferably the champions). Could be a good fixture to look forwards to.

Whatever happens, we can't afford to miss out on friendly matches with big sides when they come to Australia for Pre-season matches, but thats off topic.