YoungHeart Manawatu have been dumped from the ASB Premiership and replaced by a New Zealand under-20 side for next season.
Manawatu have collected the wooden spoon for the last three seasons and their youth team have also achieved little success but they remain in an expanded 12-team youth league. A team from Masterton and South Auckland are the newcomers to the youth league.
New Zealand Football made the decision to axe Manawatu this week and replace them with an under-20 side, which will be based in Auckland. The new licences are for three years.
The move represents the first change in teams participating in New Zealand's highest football league in nine years, although the team that holds the Waikato licence will be known as WaiBop United.
A statement released by Manawatu said they "are reeling" from the "devastating decision" not to renew their licence and said it was a move that did "not make sense".
"The decision is a bitter blow to football in Manawatu and will undo years of work by schools, clubs, Central Football and the franchise in developing the wealth of local footballing talent," the statement said.
"The decision to replace YoungHeart with a New Zealand under 20s side is a great surprise following many meetings where it was made clear that the concept of including the under-20s was only acceptable as part of an expanded ASB Premiership.
"NZF have chosen to include a side described by NZF's chief executive [Grant McKavanagh] as recently as last week as an unknown quantity, whose competitiveness is irrelevant, at the expense of an existing franchise based on their apparent lack of competitiveness. This simply does not make sense.
"This is a sad day for Manawatu and football in regional New Zealand."
