Better than any Christmas present, Wellington Phoenix fans got the gift they’d been waiting for this week when the club was handed a five-year extension to its A-League licence. It also comes as welcome solace for a competition that has seen North Queensland Fury driven to the wall and doubt over Gold Coast United’s future involvement in recent weeks.
The about-turn from Asian Football Confederation president Mohammed Bin Hammam to agree on the extension after meeting with Oceanic Football Confederation counterpart Reynald Temarii is as surprising at it is refreshing.
Bin Hammam has been a devout critic of the New Zealand club’s right to play in the A-League for some seasons now. He is on the record saying that, after 2011, all teams in the A-League had to be based in Australia.
Hamman has been rather more subdued since just holding onto his seat on FIFA’s executive committee after a tight election last year.
But like an embittered old businessman with a life-long grudge, few would have tipped Hammam to backtrack on an apparent steely determination to rid the A-League of Wellington.
So why the change in thinking from Hammam?
Sure, heavily lobbying by the club helped.
The support of influential figure Frank Lowy wouldn’t have harmed the bid either, nor would have New Zealand’s World Cup qualification.
But perhaps the Phoenix’s strongest bargaining chip simply came down to on-field results.
As I wrote in March, Wellington’s run to a debut finals campaign was the feel-good, fairytale story of the 2009/10 season.
Black and yellow suddenly became vogue in the New Zealand capital, with a crowd of over 32,000 roaring on their side in the minor semi-final win over Newcastle last month.
For the first time since succeeding the ill-fated New Zealand Knights in 2007, Phoenix came into its own as an A-League entity. The timing couldn’t have been better.
The Phoenix are no closer to discovering if it will be eligible for the Asian Champions League in future seasons, but that may still be some seasons away.
The first – and biggest – of hurdles has already been cleared. As with every sport, results mean everything in football.
For Wellington, it might have meant the difference between life and death.
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