Soccer: Turner is judged on results

By TERRY MADDAFORD


Chris Turner will not slip away quietly.

It is not his style, despite his insistence that he never wanted to be the face of the Football Kingz.

In from the start - and he struggles to remember exactly when that was - Turner has often been cast as the villain and cause of all the club's woes.

This week he stepped aside as a new broom was put in place - British-based majority shareholder Brian Katzen.

Turner, for so long the face of the Kingz, is standing aside as chairman but will still play a role in the franchise.

But who is Chris Turner?

Born in Christchurch, raised at Hurleyville, South Taranaki, and schooled at St Peter's College in Auckland, he has been around soccer for many of his 43 years.

As a junior, Turner played for South Taranaki against North Taranaki - a team who included 1982 All Whites goalkeeper and now Federation Five chairman Frank van Hattum.

Turner went on to play for Manurewa and in age-group representative teams for the old Franklin and Districts Association (now Counties Manukau and part of Federation Two).

He made his national league debut as a 16-year-old for Manurewa under coach John Adshead.

His first game, of 16, for the national side was a 3-0 away win over Fiji. Turner scored on debut, with Shane Rufer - later Kingz assistant coach - and Sam Malcolmson scoring the others.

A serious knee injury in February 1981 cut Turner's career short and ended what was a chance of playing under Adshead in the 1981-82 World Cup campaign. It also ended any hope he might have had of pursuing a professional career.

He managed a comeback to again play national league but never at better than 70 per cent.

Turner switched to coaching, taking the player-coach role at Manurewa for three seasons before stints at Mt Albert Ponsonby and Mt Roskill.

Away from the field, he spent 18 months at Auckland Teachers' College before deciding teaching was not his lot.

He joined Freightways as a cadet, rising to sales manager in his 12 years with the company. He was later Auckland sales manager at Waste Management, regional manager at TNT Express and Auckland manager for Crown Worldwide Movers before leaving to set up his own business, a loyalty programme in schools.

That was put on hold - and remains so - when Turner and a group of a dozen interested people looked at setting up a team to play in the Australian national league.

They had to challenge Oceania president Charlie Dempsey, who contended that a team from one country could not play in another's competition. That hurdle was overcome.

Eventually Turner, John Batty, Noel Robinson and Noel Barkley remained to drive the bid.

After 2 1/2 years, they succeeded in getting a team on to North Harbour Stadium for the Kingz' inaugural Australian NSL match in the 1999-2000 season under coach Wynton Rufer.

Turner has held a variety of roles in the club. He has been a shareholder and director throughout, while taking jobs such as chairman and acting chief executive.

On the personal front, Turner's marriage broke up early. He has been with partner Donna for 13 years. They have two children, Rory, 9, and Josh, 4, plus Kris from Donna's previous marriage.

Turner has admitted that his involvement with the club came at a cost, and he doubted that he would again put his family through the sometimes tumultuous times.

He said his motives and integrity could not be questioned, but that he and the club would be judged by results.

That, sadly, is where they have come up short. No one could deny Turner's enthusiasm and drive, but at times, that has not been enough.