SOCCER GROUNDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 1

SOCCER GROUNDS

HOPES FOR NEXT SEASON ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL REPORT Soccer hopes to set back the Milford and Northcote grounds, both of which were lost to the code last year and remove the necessity of doublebanking lower grade games on one city area. committee of the Auckland t ootball Association also hopes, in its annual repor.t, . that one or two new playing areas handy to the city will be available, this season. Nothing has been done to. repair the damage caused by slips at Blandford Park. As the result of a writ issued by the association a case had been set down for hearing at the Supreme Court in April Meanwhile nothing could be done toward putting the park in proper order. The financial statement did not make such pleasant reading as in previous years because of the wet season and to Blandford Park conditions. There had been a remakable growth in the code, especially in the junior grades. The increase was provided by 29 new organisations, consisting of 980 players, and this necessitated the playing of 320 extra games. The Referees’ Association, in its annual report, states: “Your committee cannot do otherwise than express dissatisfaction at the lenient treatment meted out to some players who were ordered off the field for transgressing the laws of the game. If the standard of refereeing is to improve the referee must have the full support of the powers that be in their efforts to suppress illegal tactics.”