Soccer: From Small Whites to All Whites

The world's most popular game is a big hit with New Zealand youngsters. But what happens next? WARREN GAMBLE reports.

Early on a misty Saturday morning, the Devonport Domain is already alive. Small boots on the end of stick-thin legs chase in clumps after the ball. At times the action looks like New Zealand's national game, with bodies packed together, arms and feet flailing.

But this is soccer, North Shore 5-year-old style, 8.30 am kick-off, oranges at half-time, the odd tear at the final whistle, bleary-eyed parents on the sideline.

Across seven half-sized fields more than 100 boys and girls in teams with names such as Red Bulls, Star Blasters and Reptiles get muddy knees playing the most popular game in the world.

At this age, soccer is also the most popular sport in New Zealand. More than 50,000 children, aged 5 to 11, lace up their boots on winter Saturdays and among boys who belong to sports clubs, soccer edges out rugby as No 1.

This season some of the bigger Auckland clubs, such as Waitakere and Glenfield, can barely cope with the number of young players. Junior soccer growth may be up as much as 15 per cent this season, and its popularity among girls and women continues to surge.

One of the mothers on the Devonport sidelines, Carrie Follas, explains the attraction: "It's more playground friendly [than rugby]. It's easier to get a ball and kick it around, and it's less dangerous."

Fear of injuries - spindly Johnny getting crash tackled by a boy mountain - is mentioned by several soccer-watching mothers, but they also enjoy the mixed teams, the skills learned, and the teamwork.

Getting them young, though, is not new for soccer and, so far, it's not enough. New Zealand has not been able to sustain any presence at the higher levels of the game. Many play only to the ages of 9 or 10 when they switch to weight-graded rugby. There is another big drop-off after secondary school.

For the overall health of the game, keeping children interested and putting the best on the road to professionalism is the future.

And there are signs that 20 years after the All Whites worked a miraculous passage to the World Cup finals in Spain, New Zealand soccer is ready to finally capitalise on youthful enthusiasm.

Whatever the outcome of Sunday's World Cup qualifying final against Australia, there is a new momentum in the game which has always been a poor relation to rugby, league and netball.

Leading the charge, for the second time, is Bill MacGowan, who resigned from Soccer New Zealand's top job in 1996 after 14 months spent having to battle enemies within as much as promoting the sport.

After switching to the rugby league Warriors in 1997, MacGowan rejoined soccer two years ago, organising the successful world under-17 championships in Auckland and being reappointed chief executive last February.

In a business plan he wrote shortly after, qualifying for the 2006 World Cup and the 2003 Women's World Cup is at the top of the list.

At Soccer New Zealand's home, a poky prefab overlooking the ground formerly known as Mt Smart where the unlikely 1981-82 campaign began, MacGowan is confident the game is on its way back.

In the foyer are a plaque marking the Spain finals, and then smaller but significant trophies from recent years - a pennant from the under-17 tournament where New Zealand recorded its first win on a world finals stage, and the 1998 Oceania Nations Cup where victory over Australia qualified the team for the lucrative 1999 Confederations tournament against teams including Brazil.

New Zealand lost to Brazil 2-0; Australia went into this week's qualifiers fresh from beating both Brazil and world champions France in this year's tournament, illustrating what some say is a growing gulf.

MacGowan disagrees. He says one of the big differences from New Zealand soccer 1982 is the change from being a net importer of players - 10 of the squad for Spain were born in Britain - to being a net exporter.

None of the All White team which ran on to the field against Australia on Wednesday plays in the domestic national league, with most either in Britain or the United States.

"We have four times the number of players offshore compared to last time [the 1997 qualifiers]," says MacGowan. "We will always fancy our chances against Australia if we prepare the team properly and we get our players playing in the same environment as them.

"The difference now is the 20 players Australia are bringing are getting 90 minutes each week. Our young players are getting a taste of it, but it's going to take time for them to develop." Time MacGowan wants to spend smoothing the path from playground kickarounds to the higher grades and, for the elite, on to professional clubs. Poor coaching is a big reason for the primary and secondary school drop-out rate, he believes.

As part of its Small Whites programme launched in March, 15,000 coaching manuals were distributed through clubs to coaches and parents. They show how to teach basic skills and conduct training sessions.

Under the streamlined soccer structure - seven federations replacing up to 32 associations - each has its own director of coaching, who will in turn set up coaching networks in their regions.

In turn they will help to spot and develop young talent to feed into another new initiative, an academy programme where 12 to 16-year-old players gather to train in the main centres three or four times a year.

Four players a year will be selected by All Whites coach Ken Dugdale to send for three-week trials to newly promoted English premier league club Bolton Wanderers, and first-division Manchester City.

Scouts from those clubs will travel here to look at age-grade tournaments.

MacGowan is also looking at developing links with American clubs where young All White stars Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott have made promising careers.

Complementing the overseas-based players is the emergence of the Auckland-based Kingz in the Australian national league. Besides giving New Zealand-based players professional experience it has brought vital television exposure for the sport.

Up until the Kingz arrival, Soccer New Zealand had to pay for television coverage; now with Sky Television's 80 per cent ownership of the club it provides 30 weeks of live cover.

MacGowan's confidence in the game's comeback is illustrated by the bottom line in modern-day sport - money. When the sponsor of the national soccer league, Qantas New Zealand, collapsed in April, another sponsor, Dunedin-based Southern Trust, was on board within three weeks.

Behind the scenes, and the reason for MacGowan's decision to return, was the scrapping of the unwieldy association system which meant little could get done without being mired in parochial politics.

Now a seven-person board, four appointed by an independent panel, three appointed from the game, runs the show, making for quicker, more coherent decisions.

"It's soccer's time again," MacGowan says.

The man who helped to take New Zealand to its pinnacle in Spain is not so sure.

Kevin Fallon, the hard-tackling, hard-talking Yorkshireman, has brought success almost anywhere he has gone, from Gisborne City to Nelson to the All Whites, and the under-17s.

He now heads the phenomenally successful Mt Albert Grammar School soccer academy, producing a team which has made it all the way to the last 16 of the Chatham Cup this year, as well as five players who have made it to professional football in England.

One of them is his son Rory, on a professional contract with first-division Barnsley and good enough to be scoring goals for England age-group teams.

Fallon has also brought controversy almost everywhere he has gone. In 1973 he was sacked from Gisborne after a training punch-up with Dugdale, then a defender.

But after the under-17 triumph against Poland in 1999 he has not been wanted by Soccer New Zealand. MacGowan will not say why, other than there were major issues with the running of the team.

Fallon's explanation: "It's tiger by the tail stuff. They can't hang on to the tiger, but they need someone with energy to go out and do that job, and I'm the only one with the expertise and energy."

Fallon says the main problem in producing the junior talent needed for the game is a lack of regular coaching, and the new school holiday academy system will not be much improvement.

"What academy? It's much ado about nothing. There's a lot of talking but where are they working?

"Here we have a 40-week term. We work every day - that's what professionals do.

"Twice a week is not enough. You may as well go and fly a kite, forget football, stop mucking around with it."

For those he considers good enough, his links with Barnsley through former Gisborne and All White player Colin Walker, now reserve team coach, mean he can send players straight into a youth contract.

Fallon says the under-17s' recent 6-0 loss to Australia showed how the game had gone backwards. "It's so frustrating. Everything could be here, all the top soccer players could come here, and we say why don't they?"

MacGowan says Fallon's view is not shared. He accepts running the new national academy only three or four times a year is not ideal, but it is only the start. Satellite academies will be set up, and the federations will also move towards much more regular training opportunities.

He says the lack of preparation cost the under-17s this year, but the team would be far better prepared in two years. "I think the sport's on a roll."

Down at at Devonport Domain, one of those who believes soccer has a real opportunity is New Zealand Cricket's new chief executive Martin Snedden.

Watching one of his four soccer-playing children, Snedden feels there is a move against rugby because of safety concerns in what has become a much more physical game, dominated by bigger players.

"I was always of the view rugby was a very skilful game, and soccer was a knockaround game, but the more I am seeing it, it's a hugely skilful game.

"Soccer seems to be getting some decent international football coming to New Zealand. The more they are able to present that, gradually that will educate the public."