Soccer: Kingz facing blackout in Australia

By LOUISA CLEAVE

Just when we were getting over underarm bowling, the Aussies are playing underfoot-ball.

The Football Kingz have been sidelined from our television sets by the Australian network Channel Seven.

The third-placed team in the Australian National Soccer League will not have their matches across the Tasman covered until the second round of competition in mid-December.

Kingz' fans in New Zealand will still see their team play home games, which are covered by their owners, Sky Television, and broadcast free-to-air by Prime Television.

The first casualty of Seven's decision to stick with Australian teams is tonight's Kingz match against Northern Spirit at the North Sydney Oval.

The Kingz' NSL opening game against Sydney Olympic was covered at Sky's expense, about $A40,000.

Kingz' chief executive Simon Massey said he had hoped Seven would be more flexible with its schedule and cover some Kingz games.

"At the beginning of the season you don't know how the top four are going to shape out so you commit an arbitrary schedule of games to cover. I would hope it could become a bit more flexible, but they're sticking to it rigidly."

Kingz will get at least five away games covered by Seven in the next round of the league.

They are still one of the most televised teams in the league, thanks to all their 13 home games being covered by Sky.

Tonight's match will be broadcast on Radio Sport from 9.30.