KEY POINTS:
Soccer officials will be hugely relieved that a Wellington-based New Zealand team will play in this season's A-League. Participation in the Australian competition is important to the game's future in New Zealand. It is the logical stepping stone for young players striving to reach the upper echelons of their sport at a European or American club, and underpins the strength of the All Whites in the international arena.
But the degree of effort required to retain a place in the A-League is a telling commentary on the state of soccer in New Zealand and the prospects of any professional club. Football Federation Australia bent over backwards to accommodate the Wellington consortium, postponing a decision on the licence for more than three weeks. It made no secret of the fact that it coveted the sizeable New Zealand market, particularly when the alternative was Townsville. In sum, it seemed imbued with the sort of supreme optimism that has pervaded the recent history of New Zealand soccer.
That sunny disposition overlooks the performance, on and off the field, of the Knights and their predecessor, the Kingz, in Australian competition. Even during the early days of the Kingz, when Wynton Rufer orchestrated a tolerable on-field record, one crisis followed another. The Knights ensured a disconnection from the public by fielding a team composed largely of faded Britons, who were badly out of their depth.
Football Federation Australia might also ponder the struggle of the Wellington franchise to guarantee even initial funding of $1.2 million. Many investors would have been discouraged by the financial difficulties of the previous franchises. But the battle to raise even a relatively small sum suggests that the roots of the game in New Zealand do not run as deeply as many imagine, and that any professional club, let alone one based away from the country's largest city, faces a struggle to survive.
Part of the blame for this situation lies with soccer's frustrating failure to take advantage of some wonderful opportunities. The acclaim that greeted the All Whites' qualification for the 1982 World Cup finals should have been the catalyst for a solid implanting of the sport in New Zealand. It was not. The astonishingly large number of youngsters who play the game should, likewise, have guaranteed its good health. It has not. Now, soccer has come close to squandering the opportunity presented by the A-League, a competition that, thanks to the presence in past seasons of players such as Dwight Yorke, has attracted a considerable amount of international attention.
At least the Wellington consortium seems unlikely to repeat the main mistake of the Knights franchise. It is keen to sign as many New Zealand players as possible. That will reinstate the pathway to the top level of the game and ensure that a significant number of local players are exposed to a standard of competition far superior to that of the New Zealand Football Championship. But the time taken to meet Football Federation Australia's conditions means player recruitment is now a matter of urgency.
The concentration on local players will win the new franchise some kudos, and provides the basis for a greater degree of public support. But it cannot disguise the struggle to retain A-League status and the miserable failure of the new team's predecessors. Soccer in New Zealand would be richly served if the Wellington franchise turns out to be a winning proposition. History, however, suggests a different outcome.
