After weeks of speculation Wellington has finally been confirmed as the new home of A-League football in New Zealand.
An 11th hour deal with local property investor Terry Serepisos has seen Wellington secure the A-League vacancy created by the pre-Christmas demise of the New Zealand Knights.
Seripisos has signed a three-year deal and has taken a 100 % shareholding of the club, allowing NZ Soccer to stitch together an A-League participation agreement with Football Federation Australia over the weekend and subsequently sub-let it to Wellington.
Serepisos says Wellington has been good to him in a business
sense so this is a way of giving something back to the city.
"I'm confident Wellington will embrace this," Serepisos said.
"As far as I'm concerned this is a clean slate. The Wellington
guys have put their heart and soul into it and now we have to
capitalise on that. There's a huge football following here so the
potential is good," he told nzsoccer.com.
NZ Soccer CEO Graham Seatter is also delighted with the news.
"The A-League is absolutely critical from all points of view. We haven't got a professional competition so having a professional team is the next best thing.
"With a strong emphasis on New Zealand players and coaches we
have a pathway now and we're hooked into a league that is the 18th
biggest in the world after just two seasons and is only going to
get bigger."
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert is expected to sign on soon
as boss of the new side.
