Soccer: Kingz face Sydney wrath

SYDNEY - The Football Kingz are near-certainties to play in next year's smaller National Soccer League despite opposition from threatened Australian clubs and Sydney media.

In developments that closely mirror the dramas that unfolded in this year's National Rugby League, Soccer Australia confirmed at the weekend that the number of teams in next year's NSL would be cut from 16 to 12.

As with the NRL reform, the announcement sparked outrage from some of the traditional soccer clubs under most threat.

Last week, two unnamed managers of Sydney clubs both questioned why their clubs should be axed from the competition while the Auckland-based Kingz, in their debut season, should stay.

Sydney newspapers also turned against the Kingz as they did when the Auckland Warriors were confirmed as NRL mainstays while more traditional clubs were culled or merged.

"Why should an Australian club suffer at the expense of a team from New Zealand," the Daily Telegraph asked yesterday. "When are Soccer Australia going to wake up to the fact that we are preparing their [New Zealand's] national team for the Oceania World Cup qualifiers?

"Furthermore, Kingz management have already had a few problems paying their players on time and we are only a third of the way through the season."

NSL general manager Stefan Kamasz said any anti-Kingz sentiment came from isolated parties. He was almost certain the Kingz would pass strict criteria required to gain entry next year.

"In ranking the clubs there's no doubt in my mind that if the Kingz continue along the basis of the previous discussions we've had in terms of the way they're capitalised and the revenue generation they say is in place, I don't see them having any problem at all," Kamasz said.

"The Kingz were this year granted a five-year licence by the NSL. They can play subject to Fifa approval, which has been given for at least two years, and as long as they meet an annually assessed set of NSL criteria." - NZPA