Soccer: Dempsey still intent on enjoying life

By RICHARD BOOCK

He stands accused of many things, but soccer administrator Charlie Dempsey is clearly not someone who allows business to get in the way of pleasure.

Only hours after surviving a vote of no-confidence in his Oceania presidency, the man who attracted worldwide condemnation for his non-vote at Zurich was joining friends for their weekly bridge evening, along with a portion of wife Annie's famed sugarless cake.

A day earlier, the 79-year-old Fifa member was on a golf course in Singapore, apparently oblivious to the fact that his abstention had caused sensational headlines throughout the world.

It was as if he was living up to his comment 19 years ago - as New Zealand Football Association chairman - that "soccer and golf will be part of my life until the day I die."

As it happens, after gaining global notoriety for his actions in Zurich last week, the man they used to call Mr New Zealand Soccer, should now have much more time for his golf.

A life member of the New Zealand Football Association, he is also the organisation's longest-serving representative after a 30-year involvement, including six years as chairman between 1982 and 1988 and another six as president between 1988 and 1994.

Dempsey's playing career began in the streets of Glasgow in his native Scotland. He had a spell with English club Gillingham at one stage, and during the Second World War played in West Africa and for the Bankstown club in Sydney.

A Royal Navy shipwright, he told his young bride Annie that New Zealand seemed the best of the countries he had seen during the war and a good opportunity for a young family wanting to escape the "bitterness of the Scottish winter."

"I didn't take a shine to the Aussies," he said.

"So we applied to come to New Zealand in the late 1940s - and finally made it."

The demobbed shipwright arrived in Auckland on September 3, 1952, with his wife and two daughters, and with the assistance of the New Zealand Government, who contributed sterling 242 to their fare.

At the time, a condition of the subsidy was that Dempsey had to work in the housing sector, and he proved so successful in the industry that he was later to become managing director of three companies.

However, his association with soccer in New Zealand dates back to the 1950s and the days when he coached Eastern Suburbs and later became the Auckland club's president.

In 1963 Dempsey became a member of the Auckland Football Association and the following year was elected to the national association.

A major player in gaining recognition for the fledgling Oceania confederation in 1964, he was elected to the inaugural Oceania executive committee two years later, appointed secretary in 1972 and president in 1982.

As director of the All Whites' 1982 World Cup campaign, Dempsey was a driving force behind New Zealand's participation in the finals at Spain, and in 1984 he received his first Fifa committee appointment, to the World Youth Championship organising committee.

He has not won all his battles and has trod on many toes, yet he feels he has been unfairly represented at times and occasionally maligned by parochial and narrow-minded interests.

"I don't go looking for fights," he once said.

"In fact, I usually retreat from the scuffles if I can.

"I might not say boo for ages, but the anti-feeling still lingers, it's still there."

A long-time member of the Remuera Golf Club, he was responsible for a significant development in the late 1990s when he helped oversee a $750,000 project which included building a new clubhouse.

At the time, he described it as one of the "major achievements" of his career, but also said soccer remained the passion of his life, and had given him a huge amount of satisfaction.

In May this year the Oceania executive rubber-stamped Dempsey's presidency until 2002, but demurred on a suggestion to extend his appointment until 2004.

"They think I deserve this as the fruits of my work since 1964," he said. "As far as the presidency's concerned, they say I can stay as long as I like."