Soccer: Bombshell as Kingz axe keeper Batty

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Jason Batty has been tossed on the scrap-heap by the Football Kingz just two months before the start of the National Soccer League season.

Twenty-nine-year-old Batty was called to a meeting yesterday to be told by Kingz player-coach Wynton Rufer he was being released and that Argentine goalkeeper Julio Cuello would be the first choice for the new season.

A stunned Batty said later he was not prepared to comment on the decision until he had spoken to "various people."

Asked whether the decision was a bolt from the blue, Batty said: "Not really. I'm still on the outer, obviously. I'm as professional as anyone and sure the decision has nothing to do with my performance."

Batty, is still seen by most as the All Whites No 1 keeper. "I came back [from holiday in the United States] to get ready for pre-season training. I certainly wasn't expecting this."

Batty said that while he had an agent, he was not actively seeking any other club because he still had the second year of his two-year contract with the Kingz to play.

In announcing the decision, Rufer said it was "as a coach, the hardest call I have ever had to make.

"Jason Batty has given great service to the Kingz and the All Whites," said Rufer. "But we have decided Julio Cuello [who arrives in Auckland today] will be our No 1 this season.

"He [Batty] will be paid and we will help him to find another club. It was, purely and simply, a coaching decision."

Rufer said Batty was too good to be retained as a second choice.

"We will be looking for a second keeper."

It is understood Ross Nicholson, Chris Marsh and Simon Eaddy will come under scrutiny for that role at the team's pre-season training camp in Rotorua.

Kingz general manager Chris Turner said Rufer had advised the club's management of his decision and that any decisions made by Rufer would be backed by them.

"Jason Batty's contract will be honoured," said Turner. "We are, in effect, giving him a free transfer if he wants to go to another club."

It is not the first time there have been questions about Batty's position at the club.

It is understood, although Batty would not confirm it, that under his contract he was to be paid a bonus if he played 50 per cent of the Kingz' games last season.

Towards the end of the season, when that seemed likely - and after his return from injury - the Kingz obtained Daniel Duke on loan from the Brisbane Strikers and chose to leave Batty, who was the All Whites' captain at the time he signed for the club, out of the playing squad.

Chris Jackson, another of the four players signed on an initial two-year contract last season, has been given the option of staying at the club but not necessarily playing, or taking a free transfer.

The club is also in discussion with Jason Batty's father, John, over outstanding wages ($45,000) for work in office management done as a working director last season.

Batty sen retains a shareholding in the club but has been dumped as a director and is no longer on the Kingz board.