Michael Brown: Opportunity lost to make game more beautiful

Allan Jones. Photo / Supplied

The new national league started yesterday with a new name and some new players but it was difficult to escape the feeling a chance had been lost.

New Zealand Football undertook a review last year that looked at a number of things, including the national league. The outcome was retaining the NZFC (now the ASB Premiership) in virtually its previous form.

It was the time to do something different. It is supposed to be the country's signature competition but something that lasts only 16 rounds (14 rounds plus semifinals and final) is, frankly, anaemic. It does little to develop players in the semi-professional ranks and will do little to help the All Whites.

The success of the national team has really only papered over the cracks. Don't forget, a New Zealand team failed to qualify for the Club World Cup for the first time this year and this season's Premiership is said to be the closest in years, not because the lower teams have caught up but because the top teams are weaker.

Most footballers around the world play upwards of 40 games a year. They do it on the back of at least 30 league games a season as well as various cup fixtures. They train at least once a day and are totally immersed in football.

It is fortunate New Zealand's best players are in professional environments in Europe, the US, Asia and Australia (the A-League) because the All Whites would struggle to qualify for a World Cup, let alone get through one unbeaten, if they relied on what happened here.

New Zealand Football can only hope more youngsters are farmed out in the future because there's little they can do for them at home.

As Allan Jones, the former All Whites coach who led Auckland City to three NZFC titles, said: "Our young swimmers are training twice a day and our best young footballers are training twice a week. If you want to have a nice sporting existence, then carry on like that but it's not going to produce the sort of players everyone wants."

An eight-team competition is too small. In essence, clubs are running the franchises anyway (Auckland City is Central United in disguise, Waitakere United are Waitakere City, Hawke's Bay are Napier City Rovers, Manawatu are Palmerston North, Team Wellington are Miramar ... ) so why not return to a club competition with twice that number competing?

This would allow promotion-relegation, one of the foundations of football around the world with consequences at both ends of the table, and real impetus for ambitious clubs.

It would also revive the Chatham Cup, a hollow competition fought out by winter league clubs only.

Aligning the winter competition and Premiership would also see reserve teams take their place as the second level of football in the country rather than winter football, which would also force the country's better players to play just nine months of the year instead of 12. They will also be under the better coaches rather than picking up bad habits in the winter league.

There will be the inevitable cries about costs. Embarking on a national league like this would undoubtedly inflate costs and require clubs to find close to $500,000 annually to compete.

If that's prohibitive, then play three regional competitions to find a handful of teams who qualify for extended playoffs to find a national champion.

It might dilute the national element of the national league but it's already been diluted.

As Jones says, it hardly seems worth it to play 14 rounds.