Soccer: It's joy and despair for the Kingz

By TERRY MADDAFORD

SYDNEY - John O'Neill has done it again. Minutes after welcoming the Football Kingz into Australia's new soccer league, he slammed the door on the Auckland-based franchise.

It was an impressive beginning for the new-look Hyundai A-League with the eight successful bidders - from eight different cities - named amid all the glitz and glamour but when push came to shove, the Kingz were shoved.

O'Neill, still seen in rugby circles as the bad boy in New Zealand's loss of rugby World Cup co-hosting rights, outlined plans for a "mini-competition" in May-June next year to find the representative for June's Oceania club championship.

It would, he said, be a competition open to "the seven Australian clubs" and not the Football Kingz.

In that brief statement, O'Neill dashed any hopes the Kingz might have had of going to Tahiti for a shot at the Oceania title and with it a chance to play in Fifa's rich world club championship and a guaranteed US$1 million prize.

And it goes further.

The Kingz - or whatever the "rebranded" entity will be called when the new-look league kicks off next August - will be forever excluded from taking that spot in the Oceania championship.

Kingz bosses were trying to play this down at yesterday's launch, but it seems certain the issue will again be raised at a media conference in Auckland this morning.

There have been a number of suggestions, including the possibility of a playoff involving the winner of the New Zealand Football Championship.

The eight foundation clubs in the new league are Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Gosford (Central Coast), Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Sydney.