The Death of a Disco Dancer

Part One - What killed the Kingz
It can be quite amusing to read comments about the reasons for the demise of the Football Kingz. Usually they’re written by people who never went to a Kingz game and have only really been actively following football in NZ for the past 3 seasons and 9 games (and counting). So here for your enjoyment (and in bullet point format) are the indisputable reasons for the demise of the Football Kingz.

•Too soon for professional football
Think about the problems professional sports leagues and professional sports teams, especially in this part of the world, are currently experiencing. Then imagine what it was like ten years ago when the Kingz kicked off – if you go back 10 years you could probably magnify those problems 100 fold. You only have to look at the current problems faced by the Hyundai A League – is there a club that hasn’t been propped up or isn’t currently being propped up by Football Federation Australia? And this is despite the A League being awash with cash. In the Kingz case there were financial problems only a few weeks into their inaugural season which led to players going unpaid and, in the case of Dino Menillo, walking out. Eventually the Kingz were forced to go semi-professional. There’s some great stories about the players having to get up at 2am in the morning, to check in at the airport at 3am, to catch 6am flights to Australia, to sit around in the airport for the entire day and wait for the bus to take them to the game which usually kicked off at 7pm in the evening – all in the name of cost saving (those were the cheapest flights). Dugdale wasn’t prepared to put up with it and quit as coach. For whatever reason Chris Turner always wanted to push ahead. I really think that football in Auckland and in New Zealand as a whole would be in a much stronger position if the Kingz had closed up shop after only the first year and we had pulled the plug on the Aussie experiment to instead focus on our own national league.

•Poor product
Despite the fact that the NSL was arguably a more credible league than the current A League, it was under resourced and wasn’t really supported outside the ethnic communities. There was stuff all support from the commercial sector (big corporates, sponsors etc) too and most importantly there was no TV coverage. Channel 7 had the rights but wouldn’t show the games! Cue “Nobody Screws Soccer Like Seven” protests. No league can survive without television coverage not to mention television revenue. The A League survives on the millions that Fox Sports pumps in every year – without Fox Sports money there would be no A League.

•Sky TV
Sky bought an 80% stake in the Kingz. In my opinion the Kingz board during the Sky years is largely responsible for killing professional football in Auckland. Who were the suits involved at that time? Maybe you can help me: John Fellet (Sky), Simon Massey (Sky), Paul Smart (Sky), John “Rugby” Hart ...I see a theme developing here. They brought in a string of gutless Melburnians who turned tail and fled after only a couple of games. The Kingz finished bottom of the league and Sky abruptly disposed of their stake. The Kingz never recovered from this ...and neither did professional football in Auckland.

•No support from New Zealand Soccer (as they were then known)
It was a real “them and us” attitude. The situation was in direct contrast to the current position with the Phoenix where NZF not only held the A League licence but has also financially assisted the Phoenix.

Replicate those circumstances in any city, in any country, in any part of the world and the outcome would be the same, namely the death of a disco dancer.

Part Two - What killed the Knights

•Money
More specifically the lack of it from Messieurs Katzen and Lee. It’s ironic that the final death knell was when the FFA pulled the plug on an instalment due to the Knights – which is the complete opposite to the situation with Newcastle Jets, Adelaide, North Queensland, Gold Coast etc etc where the FFA gave those clubs extra money to bail them out instead of taking it away.

•John Adshead
Used what little money he had to buy a string of dud players (third rate/fourth rate journey men) then, when he realised he had made a mistake, fled to Tauranga to play golf with Allan Jones. It always amuses me when Adshead pops up in the paper to offer advice on football matters. Surely if he had any credibility, when the reporter rings up he’d simply say “I was a dismal failure at the Knights and am partly responsible for destroying professional football in Auckland so I really don’t feel I have anything credible to say about the current state of football”. Same goes for Fallon popping up in the media (vis a vis his part in the demise of the Kingz), although at least with Fallon he inherited a team that wasn’t really his - but that’s still no excuse for signing your oldest son!

•No support from New Zealand Soccer
See “Part One – What killed the Kingz” above. It’s particularly pertinent here because the Knights were waiting on an instalment of money due to them from the FFA but which never arrived – I think it’s common knowledge that in the case of the Phoenix, NZ Football is advancing the Phoenix money due to them from the FFA.

"...Oh, but maybe in the next world
Maybe in the next world..."