New Zealand Breakers minority owner Marc Mitchell is understood to be the man behind a consortium seeking to enter an Auckland team into the A-Leagues.
According to Stuff NZ, multiple sources have indicated the consortium is in the advanced stage of discussions with the Australian Professional Leagues (APL), the governing body that runs the A-Leagues. A public announcement is expected to be imminent.
In late July, a company was set up by Mitchell titled ‘Auckland Football Limited’ where he was listed as its sole director. Stuff NZ understands there is set to be no connection between the football club and the New Zealand Breakers Basketball team.
In recent times, a website has been set up for the proposed team under the web address of Auckland.football.
Social media accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms have been set up with similar branding.
All Whites Coach Darren Bazeley recently stated that he thinks proposed new Auckland team will turn out much better than the Knights.
“The Phoenix have done a great job showing how a New Zealand team can perform in the A-Leagues, though they’ve obviously had ups and downs.
“This Auckland franchise has now got a great opportunity to come into a big market that has turned up for football matches, turned up for the Phoenix, turned up for international games. Hopefully now people will get behind an Auckland A-Leagues franchise and turn up to watch the team.
“I’m hearing that the people that are going to be running the club are top people and it’s going to be financially stable, whereas I think the first Auckland franchise, potentially wasn’t financially stable, but it was the beginning of the league and people didn’t really know.
“I think this one will be a lot different, I’m very excited.”