Matthew Hall
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The End Of The Affair
The A-League's relationship with New Zealand just got "complicated".
Unfortunately, it comes just as Wellington Phoenix begins to show that there might be some substance in Australia's long distance affair with an A-League club on the other side of the Tasman.
But more powerful forces are at work to expose the very folly of the concept.
The question being asked is "Why is a team from New Zealand, from another Confederation, participating in Australia's domestic competition?"
What's important is just who is asking the question. The answer: Mohamed Bin Hamman, the President of the Asian Football Confederation.
What's more important is Bin Hamman's persistence in asking the question and the ever-increasing heat he's applying to the topic.
Last week, ESPN ran an interview with Bin Hamman where he was quizzed on the future of Wellington Phoenix. The President was adamant. Under a current agreement, Wellington can participate in the A-League but after 2011, forget about it.
"Our criteria insists that all clubs are from the territory of the federation," Bin Hamman said. "We don't allow outside clubs to be part of that league. But considering that this club already has this permission from FIFA we presume they are also committed commercially, with their sponsors, TV rights holders and so on.
"We allow them to participate for now in Australia. But it will only be until 2011 after which either this club must definitely disappear or they'll re-register themselves in Australia as an Australian club under the law of Australia. That would mean that all New Zealand players would be treated as foreigners so they would only be able to have three New Zealanders playing."
In other words, New Zealand is from the wrong side of the tracks. We can have our fun now but soon it's going to be time to get serious.
Bin Hamman's options are as clear as you can get - either a New Zealand team has no future in the league or the situation is so absurd, a New Zealand team as Kiwi as a kangaroo, that it becomes even more of a folly than it currently is.
The timing of Bin Hamman's latest interview is also important. It took place last weekend, in Malaysia, right after Football Federation Australia Chairman Frank Lowy and CEO Ben Buckley met with AFC executives in Shanghai.
On that meeting's agenda was Wellington's future. Buckley will be quoted in this weekend's edition of The Sun-Herald claiming that, yes, there are problems and, yes, there's still work to do to secure Wellington's future.
Australia may give New Zealand a hug and a cuddle and publicly say that it wants the team in its league but if the big daddy of the AFC says there's no way that guy (Wellington) is going to spend time with his daughter (Australia) then, as fathers around the world know, that's pretty much the end of the issue.
Interestingly, Bin Hamman is a polished diplomat. I've met him on several occasions and his usual soft-spoken, measured and courteous manner mean his strong words are not rants from a neighbourhood bully.
Of course, all this has implications for A-League expansion. FFA will introduce four more teams over the next two years. It can't afford to introduce any more just yet.
If Melbourne has the 11th place in 2010 apparently already sewn up then there's just one place left to accommodate a second Sydney team (that Frank Lowy so keenly desires) and a team from either Wollongong, Canberra, or Tasmania.
All four regions have credible claims for inclusion.
But, again, there's the folly of New Zealand effectively taking the place of an Australian side.
When the A-League launched in 2005, FFA needed a New Zealand team. It was one of the best on the block.
Now, we've grown and developed, and maybe left New Zealand behind.
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COMMENTS
How is having a NZ team in the HAL advantageous for Australia? How is having a NZ team in HAL advantageous for Oceania football? How is having a NZ team in HAL advantageous to the long term development of football in NZ?
The negatives outweigh the positives for the first two questions, and most likely the third too. HAL is propping up the only professional club team in NZ, and in turn helps their national team in the absence of little signficant investment football development programs to nature and grow NZ football esp at the elite level. Soccer NZ is going nowwhere fast, and the only real recent gains have been improvments to their under age women's teams who are now very competitive.
However, rather than just a blunt get out by 2011, the AFC President needs to work with FIFA and OFC to help develop and implement some better football development options that grow the Oceania region that also provide NZ teams with meaningful club competition outside Australia's subsidisation
The Phoenix situation as Matthew mentions is unique on a global level, they are from another Confederation.
Whether or not Oceania is sustainable as a distinct Federation should be on the agenda too as this issue of a foreign club playing in another national league is a symptom of lacl of opportunities and capacity building. What needs to be done by the relevant parties to grow and sustain football development to include professional opportunities and lift the competitive standards?
Also has the Phoenix been embraced supporting football development of Pacific island nations by providing places in their club set up e.g. youth scholarships?
Agree that the crunch will also come as more rival consortium bids fight for the next places in HAL for 2010-2011. Australian clubs should come first, and that's in our national interests.
- by Pete on December 06, 2008 at 06:09 PM
A-League is boring.. im over it !!
- by Chris on December 06, 2008 at 11:25 PM
So I presume Bin Hamman thinks the AFC can have policies that conflict with those of FIFA?? Think again!! FIFA set a precedent of allowing a team from one country to play in another country's league some years back when they allowed Vaduz (Liechtenstein) to play in the Swiss first division. Vaduz's players are not treated as 'foreign' per se under this arrangement.
The chances of the AFC overturning a rule instigated by EUFA are nil IMHO.
If FFA remind Bin Hamman of this (diplomatically, of course) my bet is this issue will quietly die.
- by kywong73 on December 07, 2008 at 08:38 AM
Chris on December 06, 2008 at 11:25 PM
so boring, that you felt the need to comment at 11:25pm on a saturday night, who is the boring one?
- by jb on December 07, 2008 at 09:58 AM
agree with borogirl. The whole oceania confed is a joke. Either merge with Asia or if Asia is then too big then split it into east and west asia. WHo knows? Maybe Bin Hamman has this in mind by pushing the wellington issue.
- by bluecitizen on December 07, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Good call by borogirl.
Chris is obviously from one of those boring parochial codes.
The A League is headed for yet another exciting finale, with all eight teams still in contention for the finals. In the future I would like to see second teams added from Melbourne and Sydney as a priority.
Retaining Wellington obviously helps the game in Oceania, and would alow the eventual admission of all of the other cities, in addition to Townsville and the Gold Coast who are keen to join: Canberra, Woolongong and Hobart. This would give the A League an unprecedented and unparalleled reach beyond any other code in Australasia.
How is it that there is no FIFA problem with MLS having a team from Toronto, with others from Canada in the application queue from Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. How is it that FIFA has no difficulty with Wales having two teams in the English Championship. There are other examples from around the world.
The most obvious current need in international football is for the Asian Confederation to be split into two new confederations with Australia remaining in an East Asian Confederation, which would also absorb Oceania. This would be much better for us because we would actually be playing against nations in our own region, instead of some of the present ridiculous contests against nations half a world away.
A part of the whole idea of joining the Asian Confederation was that we would play against "natural enemies" in our region against whom we would build up a traditional rivalry. The games, whether home or away are then also more or less on our time line. How many people in Austalia get up in the middle of the night to watch Australia play Bahrein, Qatar, UAE, Saudi et al.
We are still having enough difficulty attracting people back to Socceroo matches (which were regularly selling out) after the China debacle last year. (By the way, I noticed one football scribe predicting after the Uzbekistan game in Brisbane that the same thing would happen with ths year's corresponding Japan game in Melbourne, if Australia has already qualified for South Africa by then.)
The other advantage of creating a new confederation out of East Asia/Oceania
is that we would get rid of Bin Hamman. This would allow him more time to continue turning a blind eye to his own country's (Qatar) dodgy antics in recruiting non-Qatari players and securing dubious qualifying results. In the mean time he should pull his head in and clean up his own back yard.
- by John Macd. on December 07, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Note also Monaco playing in the French league, but in both those cases all concerned are European nations, Bin Hamman's beef seems to be the cross-confederation idea.
He couldn't really see this as a drain on resources to a rival organisation, could he?
- by James St John Cox on December 07, 2008 at 12:05 PM
nz football seems to be slowly progressing, and that should be encouraged as much as possible. we should know better than anyone, how difficult it is being 'that' big fish in the smallest of ponds. if israel can play in europe, why can't a team from nz play here? i agree with borogirl. maybe a 2 tiered system would be a good way to boost the region. it'd give the 'minnows' greater acces to other quality teams like japan, iraq etc.
so far as the a-league being boring; the best indication is that it has improved, even marginally, each year. thankfully, aust coaches are more 'skills-minded' these days, and hopefully, within the next 5 years, we'll see a lot more of our youth playing in the a-league because of their skill. the best will still disappear o/s, but this will create opportunities for other young players. here's hoping.
- by ja on December 07, 2008 at 12:16 PM
A-league just keeps getting worse. I cant watch it anymore
- by Mourinho on December 07, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Yes kywong73, but just because FIFA have allowed a NZ team to play in Australia, does not mean that the AFC will allow them to play as a part of the Asian Confederation. Imagine that Wellington qualify for the ACL... How can they possibly play in Asia? They are an Oceanian team. Bin Hamman is quite right with regard to this issue.
- by Jes on December 07, 2008 at 01:25 PM
I guess the situation does become absurd if the Phoenix ever win the A-League and therefore get a place in the Asian Champions League. If they then go on to win the Champions League, you have an Oceania team as champions of Asia.
I don't think that will go down well with Bin Hamman or anyone in the AFC.
- by Ben Jones on December 07, 2008 at 01:37 PM
Can you imagine thought of an Irish team playing in the EPL? Or an Italian team playing in the French league? No you can't. Having a NZ team only cheapens the league. It says loudly - were not confident in ourselves so lets try adda team that will have a guranteed fan base. Well as we have seen - their crap on the field and they have very poor attendance records. Its bad enough having to fly from Syd to Perth let alone to a whole new country. Time to grow up and cutt off the dead wood!!!!
- by Shane on December 07, 2008 at 03:18 PM
kywong73 you miss one important point when reffering back to the Liechtenstein / Swiss situation. Both those teams are European and subsequently in the UEFA confederation. The issue at hand is New Zealand is OFC and Australia is AFC. Being in different countries is only a slight problem... being in different confederations is just messy... Basically the UEFA rule is not relevant in this situation.
- by hutch on December 07, 2008 at 08:11 PM
I have to agree that it seems a little strange to have a NZ team in the A-League. It gets a little stranger when it comes to the AFC. What if Wellington win a GF, surely they wont play in the AFC Champions league? There are a few clubs lining up now in Australia that want in. Maybe we can give the Wellington owners their investment back in one of the clubs.
- by Peter C on December 07, 2008 at 08:32 PM
A League may not have advanced as we had hope, but give it a chance and time to improve, after all four years is a very short time. It will take time to rid Australian football the NSL syndrome of last minute panic in the box. Better scores will come from precise attacks and finishes
- by Noel Buckman on December 08, 2008 at 07:51 AM
Another point is why would Asia want to take over Oceania anyway?? The AFC says it too big at the moment with 46 nations.
How could NZ and the Pacific Island nations ever add to Asia commercially and football wise. The AFC knows it would be just more handing $$$ to nations in need of development.
- by Goalkeeper on December 08, 2008 at 09:32 AM
NZ have a team in the Australian National Basketball league, NZ also have an Auckland based team in the Australian National Rugby League competition and the possibility of adding another team from Wellington has been considered. I can`t see any problem with retaining Wellington in the football league. It`s a bit backwards looking considering how soccer is a minor sport in Australasia yet has the potential to expand. I say keep the Wellington Phoenix in the league and even look at adding another NZ team to the league in the future. It`s a market of 4.3 million people basically starved of Soccer. It`s a shame that football admistrators seem to be stuffy conservative types still stuck in the 1950`s
- by Alan Skinner on December 08, 2008 at 02:10 PM
australia soccer needs to grow and play against n.z. helps a lot. we are to far away from europe, south america the only world champs. unity is good...
- by marcelo de Souza on December 08, 2008 at 07:50 PM
i love soccer...
- by marcelo de Souza on December 08, 2008 at 08:07 PM
Nice one Australia. You seem to be falling over yourselves to please the big boy dishing out the cash in Asia. So much for the plucky Aussie fighting against the odds - it seems you now will sell your soul to make your path a bit easier.
It is a sad indictment that you would cast away your nearest neighbour with such disregard. After years of pleading for a fair deal in Oceania, you are awfully fast to cut it loose after you got your break.
There is more to life than money and winning. I can only hope that you learn something from the recent experiences of your cricket and rugby league teams. A bit of humility?
- by Michael on December 08, 2008 at 08:12 PM
to tell the truth, I'm sick of people bagging out the A-League. Yes, I'm under no illusion that it's not yet at the quality we want. But it will get there. The fact is though, to get to that quality it needs support to provide the money to build the quality. So if you want to league to be better, stop whinging and get behind it.
- by Peter C on December 09, 2008 at 12:51 PM
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As much as I identify myself as Australian, isn't the goal also for expansion of football in the region? With that in mind, surely its time to finally merge Oceania and Asia - maybe with a 2nd tier for the "minnows" to play off against each other before being included in the final qualifying rounds??