Soccer: MacGowan leaves behind puzzling legacy

When Bill MacGowan walked out of the offices of New Zealand Soccer (NZS) for the last time on Friday, he left behind a puzzling legacy of achievement and lost opportunities. Change and controversy became a signature of his five years in the hotseat as boss of NZS.

While he might have preferred to have been remembered for helping the game become the No 1 participant sport in the country, the restructuring of the national body and national league, or even the sound financial state NZS is now in, he's more of a realist than that.

Like anyone involved in sport, they're only as good as their last result and MacGowan's was the embarrassing 4-2 defeat to Vanuatu at last year's World Cup qualifiers. This result alone, he says, is what people will remember him for.

"It's what the game is about," he says matter-of-factly. "You're in sport for results. People look for a scapegoat and they will say I was there when we lost to Vanuatu. But I didn't pick the side, I wasn't on the park and we gave the players the best preparation from a financial point of view. I don't think anyone expected us to lose Vanuatu.

"If a team losing means the CEO needs to be pinged, there would be a hell of a lot of chief execs in the country shown the door. I can live with that. It will give those wonderful soccer experts someone to blame for the next few years."

MacGowan might have a sting in the tongue when referring to those "wonderful soccer experts" but it's true to say the sport has had its fair share of protagonists.

Unity has rarely been its strongpoint. All Whites skipper Ryan Nelsen laid in, accusing NZS of being "arrogant" in not arranging warm-up matches, Steve Sumner said he was "sick of watching gutless, inept performances" in demanding an independent review and Ole Madrids even threatened NZS with legal action after being left out of the revised national league.

MacGowan resigned in August but agreed to remain in the post until the end of this month to ease the transition to new boss Graham Seatter. "It wasn't because people were having a pop at me. I just felt the chief exec needed to commit to the 2010 World Cup," MacGowan says. "I think the game's in good heart but I didn't see myself here for the next five years."

MacGowan's appointment in 2000 was enthusiastically received considering he'd saved the Warriors from the brink of financial ruin and been the chief organiser of the 1999 world under-17 champs. Progress has undoubtedly been made but money has always been an issue.

The Australian Government recently pumped in $15 million into the game there, while NZS receives $200,000 from Sparc. "Our funding from Sparc hasn't changed since 1998," MacGowan says. "They say they need a performance that stops people in the streets. The only way is if we qualified for another World Cup but people don't understand how much of a mountain we'd have to climb."

MacGowan has climbed his mountain and will take time out. He's unsure about the future - or reluctant to divulge - but he certainly made his mark on a sometimes ugly period for the beautiful game in this country.


- HERALD ON SUNDAY