Soccer: Aussie soccer chief wants Fifa ruling on Kingz

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The Football Kingz could be playing for nothing in the new-look Australian Premier League.

The prospect of pouring around $4 million a year into the new competition for no return hardly seems an inviting prospect.

On his whistle-stop visit to Auckland yesterday, Australian Soccer Association chief executive John O'Neill said he would have to look at the Fifa regulations and get a ruling from them before being able to confirm the Kingz' right to represent the new league in the Oceania Club Championships.

With no prizemoney at stake for at least the first five years of the league - which is scheduled to kick off in August next year - the only carrot for the eight clubs is in winning the competition.

The winning club can then contest the Oceania play-offs with the winner of that assured of a place in the Fifa World Club Championship which guarantees a US$1 million payout.

O'Neill, obviously concerned at a report in the Herald last week in which ASA media and communications manager Stuart Hodge said the Kingz would be eligible to play in and win a proposed "mini league" early next year to find a team for June's Oceania qualifier, said he would need to make further inquiries.

"We will have to look at the Fifa regulations," said O'Neill after his meeting with Kingz spokesman Guy Hedderwick and New Zealand Soccer officials.

"We need to seek clarification from Fifa on whether they [the Kingz] are a New Zealand or Australian club.

"If they are seen as a New Zealand club that could mean New Zealand would have two representatives in the Oceania championship."

That is something he, obviously, was not too keen on.

The precedent for that has, however, been set with hosts Tahiti already handed two spots in June's tournament.

Hedderwick has no doubt the Kingz are an Australian team as all the players' registrations will be held by the ASA.

"Obviously [Kingz benefactor] Brian Katzen sees playing in the World Club Championship as the carrot," said Hedderwick. "Of course it [any refusal to allow the Kingz to represent the Australian League in the Oceania Championship] remains an issue.

"They have said they will review the situation. We want to have our chance - I want to see the Kingz beat Manchester United."

On all other fronts, Hedderwick was upbeat following his meeting with the ASA top brass. "There is a lot of work to be done," Hedderwick said.

"They said they would review the question of playing in the Oceania Club Championship. That is a huge thing for us but there are other issues we need to clarify.

"We need first and foremost to know when the league will start and whether it is going to be a sustainable competition."

While he is confident of finding the money to mount a worthy bid, Hedderwick says "getting the structure right" remained the most pressing concern.

"Finding $4 million is an issue for everyone. There are a whole bunch of unknowns at this time but I think they are close.

"This was the first meeting of the two parties and there was a huge amount of information. They certainly advanced what we had learned from the [confidential] criteria document."

O'Neill, who has already visited Newcastle and has another 10 prospective licence-holders to visit in the next 10-12 days, said the Kingz bid, mounted with the full support of New Zealand Soccer, was "very robust".

"To the extent there are no guarantees in life, the Football Kingz, if they meet the criteria, are in a very strong position," said O'Neill.

"This is a major transtasman football championship. The bid document is very impressive. The hiatus [from the end of the last season until the new competition] is unavoidable but not necessarily damaging.

"There are lessons to be learned. Clubs have to live within their means.

"In its last four years the NSL lost $60 million. Forty-one clubs played in the 27 years of the old league but only on five occasions did a club make a profit.

"We are going to build something. We are in the mass entertainment ranks," O'Neill said.

"This league will play a vital role on both sides of the Tasman."

O'Neill's comments were further strong evidence of the support the Kingz, the only New Zealand contenders, can count on. But only, surely, if the issue of the club championship can be sorted out.