Auckland United Football Club launches in Mangere

MEDIA RELEASE

Auckland United FC Launch Release 17/10/13

SOUTH AUCKLAND SET TO JOIN THE ASB YOUTH LEAGUE

Auckland United Football Club launches in Mangere

Auckland football fans now have a new team to support.

The brand new Auckland United will join the ASB Youth League in January 2014 with the desire to join the ASB Premiership in the future.

The club is based at Centre Park, Mangere which has a spectator capacity of 3000.

The team’s manager will be Colombian Mauricio Rojas. Rojas, 36, has recently arrived in New Zealand from the UK, where he had been working at English Premier League clubs Fulham FC, Crystal Palace FC and QPR FC on their youth development programmes and academies.

UEFA A licence qualified, Rojas comes to the club with more than 15 years experience of coaching in South America, New Zealand, Africa and the UK. Starting out as a goalkeeper for Bogota’s Millianarios youth team he then moved into coaching.

Rojas was appointed by the board of Auckland United FC, led by former NZ Football Chief Executive Noel Robinson

Of the appointment Rojas says: “It is a great honour to be asked to be a part of this new project which has been in development for some time. The club has a team of people behind it with vast experience in football and we are willing and able to do things in the right way to ensure the club’s success.

“South Auckland is a mixture of so many different cultures so it’s going to be exciting to see The undiscovered talent and those who may have been overlooked by other clubs.

“We are also excited to build a club that sits at the heart of the community. This is a great opportunity to have a club from the south of Auckland in the top national youth league and we envisage that local population will really get behind us.”

Rojas takes the reigns immediately. His first task will be to source talent for the team’s playing squad. The club will be running trials and going on a scouting mission to Napier for the Lotto U19 Youth Football Championships.

Trials will be held at Mangere Centre Park: Phase One: Saturday 19th October at 2pm to 5pm; and on Tuesday 22nd October and Tuesday 29th October at 5.30pm Phase Two: Saturday 2nd November (by invitation) Phase Three: Tuesday 5th November (by invitation)

Training of the selected squad will commence on immediately thereafter with the league kick-off being January 12th 2014.

Of the appointment, Chairman Noel Robinson says “We are delighted to have Mauricio on board and he will bring experience and a new vision to our football. His long experience in dealing with youth players in particular, equips him well for our programme which includes identification and development of talented players

“My bid team has made several previous attempts to gain entry in to the ASB Premiership and we are now focussed on success at this youth level and to bring top football back to the south of Auckland.”

Ends

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