Arrogant, irritating Aussies are New Zealand’s best hope

 
Davidde Corran Columnist

By , 1 Mar 2010 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert

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New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, left, and captain Ryan Nelsen reacts after their team's 1-0 win over Bahrain in the World Cup qualifying playoff second leg soccer match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/NZPA, Ross Setford)

I’m still shaking my head in disbelief at the astonishing attack on Football Federation Australia made in New Zealand’s Sunday Times yesterday. In the article, writer Simon Plumb implores readers not to “hold your breath waiting for an annual Socceroos-All Whites clash – the arrogant Aussies don’t want to know about it.”

“Despite agreeing to a May 24 clash in Melbourne as a pre-World Cup friendly, Football Federation Australia officials are not interested in creating a Bledisloe Cup-styled regular encounter.

“The FFA are content to use New Zealand’s only A-League franchise, the Phoenix, as a convenient cash cow but when it comes to providing Kiwi soccer fans with an annual trans-Tasman clash, the prospect is falling on deaf ears.”

Now I realise Sunday News has a similar reputation to The Daily Telegraph, and I’d hate to come across as an arrogant or even irritating Aussie, but that doesn’t mean that hyperbole laden articles that are based on tenuous arguments should go unchallenged.

For their part, when asked whether its realistic for Australia and New Zealand to discuss a regular fixture between the two countries, an FFA spokesperson responded with a trite, “Not realistic at all. Football is an international game and a very different proposition to rugby and cricket.”

While FFA would do well to choose their words better when referring to competitive codes, it’s a reasonable point.

It goes without saying, or at least I thought it did, that football is a much more global game than any of the other codes played by Australia and New Zealand. That means the context in which football sides from both nations would meet is entirely different.

The Wallabies and All Blacks play against each other so often because it’s difficult to find top class opposition beyond a handful of nations. The same can be said, albeit to different degrees, for league and cricket.

This isn’t the case with football and it is in both nations interests for our national teams to be continuously exposed to high-class opposition of varying styles. Which isn’t something that would be achieved by an annual ANZAC fixture.

So FFA needs to work within that environment to protect and develop the game in Australia. Their job isn’t “providing Kiwi soccer fans with an annual trans-Tasman clash” as Plumb might have you believe.

Sunday News is also unhappy with FFA’s monopoly over their OWN finals series and that when it comes to gate receipts, “FFA pockets the lot”.

In truth there is a problem with a finals series in which clubs lose money by competing in it.

It’s not so much who pockets gate receipts (or makes up the difference as in Gold Coast last week) but the lack of any form of prize money that is the issue and Sunday News would do well not to get the problem mixed up in a farcical Australian agenda against Wellington Phoenix.

Still here’s another agenda for you: FFA stops supporting New Zealand football and lets the game rot away in Oceania without any local professional football.

The All Whites will enjoy their moment in the sun come South Africa this year but it’ll be a tough ask for them to make it to another World Cup in the near future.

I don’t for a second propose this, in fact just last Friday I wrote about how each nation can, and must, continue to support one another’s football development, but there are those who have.

While many are grateful for the Phoenix’s presence in the A-League and are enjoying New Zealand football’s mild renaissance, rash articles like Plumb’s work against all those interested in trans-Tasman development.

Plumb finishes his article by quoting Football NZ boss Michael Glading’s support for an annual fixture between our two nations but claiming that “it looks like (Glading’s) words will be falling on deaf ears.”

Well, good. Lets hope they do.

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