Soccer: Naive to expect Kingz to lead a renaissance

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Years ago when the possibility of a New Zealand-based team playing in the Australian National League was raised, Charlie Dempsey kicked the idea into touch.

Dempsey, a former New Zealand Football Association chairman and later president, maintained that the sport's governing body, Fifa, would not agree to such a proposal.

Dempsey, it was soon revealed, was telling only half the story. He forgot, maybe conveniently, that Fifa's statutes did allow such a marriage if the national associations of both countries agreed.

The seeds were sown and in October 1999 the Football Kingz followed the Warriors league team in kicking off their first season in an Australian environment.

Some viewed the new team - it could hardly be called a club - as a commercial enterprise hellbent on success. Others dared hope that it would provide a career path to professional football for young Kiwi players.

Those same people - two seasons on and on the verge of a third - now feel that the Football Kingz have fallen somewhere between the two stools.

The Kingz can point to some success in having Ivan Vicelich signed to a top overseas club.

But their failure to encourage younger players such as Leigh Kenyon, who was released for the new season, or their lack of success in finding common ground in negotiations with Jeff Campbell - signed by Adelaide City - suggests that the development policy might only be on paper.

There have been suggestions that New Zealand players will be offered loosely tagged "performance-based deals," even the chance of an apprenticeship.

Nothing wrong with that, but it will be no surprise if Australian, the odd Japanese or perhaps European players provide the bulk of the starting line-up when the new season starts in October.

If winning the league is the sole, or at least main aim of new coach Mike Petersen, there will be no complaints from the fans, even if New Zealand players are relegated to the substitutes' bench - nothing breeds success like success.

But, as the Warriors know only too well, that does not come easily.

They have at least found a happy medium as their Australian "imports" are complementary to the sound Kiwi base.

But they are still struggling to win a place in the end-of-season play-offs.

The Kingz fans might not be as patient, especially if the much-touted Australian influence fails to deliver.

There is no one who does not want the Kingz to succeed, but to expect them to lead a renaissance in New Zealand soccer would be naive.

It would be better to sit back and enjoy, and leave any rumblings until the end of the season. By then, the call for success and the promotion of young New Zealand players might have been met.