Tauranga City AFC and Pāpāmoa FC have combined to create a new shared entity for U-9 to U-17 football in the area.

Two of the region's biggest football clubs have combined to create a new shared entity with the aim of providing more opportunities for skilled training to budding footballers across the Bay of Plenty.

FC Tauranga Moana is the new entity, founded by both Tauranga City AFC and Pāpāmoa FC - with both clubs open to others falling under the FCTM umbrella in the future.

The change will take place from January 1, 2023, and players from U-9 to U-17 level can expect to have a new name managing their programmes.

The name, FC Tauranga Moana, was chosen to reflect the history and joint identity of the clubs.

Despite the change, coaching turnover is not expected and players can expect to see the same faces leading their sessions.

Senior Tauranga City and Pāpāmoa teams will remain under their current monikers.

At present, Tauranga City and Pāpāmoa currently hold the only New Zealand Football-accredited Skills Centre and Talent Development Programmes in the Bay.

After advisement from NZF that more cross-club collaboration was necessary to best maintain these development programmes both clubs decided to pool their resources.

FC Tauranga Moana's primary focus will be to operate these SKC & TDP development programmes for TCAFC and PFC including SKC programmes for U-9 to U-12 footballers, from which WaiBOP Federation Junior (U12 Regional) teams will operate; and TDP programmes for U-13 to U-17s, from which teams that compete in WaiBOP Federation Y-League and NRFL Youth competitions will operate.

Discussions over this collaborative effort have been ongoing for years but accelerated over 2022. A working group, with the support of WaiBOP, NRF, NZF and SportBOP, was formed to look at various options in more detail.

A full club merger was soon ruled out, with club identities and history deemed too important.

The shared entity between Tauranga City Pāpāmoa then became a reality - as both clubs saw a need to unite in order to give the region the best chance of standing up to more traditionally successful footballing areas such as Auckland and Hamilton.

'This is exciting for our members, enabling more footballing options and an enriched football pathway,” says Tauranga City chairperson Brendon McHugh.

'But it's not just about football programmes and aspirational players, we see this as a benefit to all of our members as we can have specific focus across all areas of our football community, which is something I'm very passionate about.

'Part of what we've been working towards is the ability to include more clubs. This is important as our aim has always been about benefiting the football community in our region. NZ Football has been pretty clear that if we didn't do something, Tauranga just wouldn't be able to compete with clubs in the bigger cities.

'We've seen a decline in our aspirational players moving to other regions, with some returning to Tauranga. FC Tauranga Moana is only going to strengthen this.”

Brendon says he and Pāpāmoa FC president Maaka Nelson began discussions over such an idea four years ago and that they both had aligned thinking.

Maaka says 'the time has arrived” for this combined effort - highlighting financial benefits as well as those in scope and scale.

'Combined membership across all entities is expected to be circa 1500 players,” he explains.

'We see substantial benefits not only for players involved in FCTM but for our home clubs. It will allow both PFC and TCAFC to really invest in our clubs at a community level allowing focus to support, improve participation, and increase continuation levels of our footballers.”

He says the already mobilised NZF-accredited frameworks within the club are a huge boost and that the new entity will not only benefit players and coaches but also administrators, referees, other clubs and schools.

'For those of us that work within the finer detail of regulations it is now or never,” he suggests.

'Make no mistake, our region will get left behind and we will not allow that to happen. This entity is for the benefit of everyone.”

Both clubs will be holding Q&A sessions on the FC Tauranga Moana entity with further details to be communicated soon and have developed a FAQ on the topic here.

-Article originally published by Mathew Nash/Match of the Bay.