- Ali Williams, former All Black and co-owner of Auckland FC, highlights the significance of perception in sports, citing advice from Steve Hansen about how others perceive him and the need to manage that perception.
- Williams reflects on personal regrets, including his dyslexia and a significant event in 2017 when he was arrested in Paris, which led to his departure from Racing 92, and a period of self-reflection and responsibility-taking.
- The motivation behind founding Auckland FC stems from a passion for football within Williams’ family and a desire to change the perception of sports in Auckland and New Zealand.
- The project focuses heavily on fan engagement and creating an entertaining experience for attendees, drawing inspiration from Williams’ rugby and Toulon experiences.
Lessons Ali Williams learned as a 77-cap All Black and family sporting passions seem destined to guide the evolution of the embryonic professional football club Auckland FC.
Williams (the Ali is short for Alexander) and his partner, toy company tycoon Anna Mowbray, are co-owners and directors of new A-League entry Auckland FC, along with American billionaire Bill Foley, and in the latest Between Two Beers podcast out this week, the 43-year-old former lock and sometimes uniquely aberrant rugby character spoke about his approach as a novice football administrator.
These days, Williams is primarily an industrial property developer and on the podcast he was quick to acknowledge he didn’t personally have all the answers to making a success of a challenging Auckland FC project, but pointed out he could at least draw on some useful All Blacks experiences.
“We’ll tap on the people that are better than us,” Williams said. “I mean, why do people not accept that there’s other people that are better than you at something and use them? You don’t have to take it all yourself.
“Use those people. That’s probably one of the biggest things I learned from being in the All Blacks, especially sort of driven by Graham Henry.
“He went and got the two best coaches in the world at that time to be his assistant coaches. That takes balls. And he did that with Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith.
“Some people, now, arguably say that Wayne Smith or Steve Hansen are better than Graham Henry. But Graham Henry was the one that said, ‘mate, if you’re better than me, let’s do it together’. Graham Henry’s move, that one move, changed New Zealand rugby and the performance of it.”
Williams, who describes himself as a “fixer-upper”, said he would also draw on the experiences of acquaintances at elite French Ligue 1 club Paris St Germain in France.
At the same time, he’s also acutely conscious of how others may perceive him, given his own rich back catalogue of roguish behaviour, unpredictability and laddish pranks from his rugby days.
“Steve Hansen used to say to me, ‘Perception is reality, Ali, and a lot of people out there perceive you as a dick, so you must be a dick’.
“I’m like, ‘But I’m not and you know I’m not’. And he’s like, ‘we need to work on the perception then, don’t we, boy?’ So he did drive that for me for a long time in my rugby career.”
Williams actually played football until he was 16 and switched to rugby, while he said Mowbray had herself been a very good footballer and had a passion for it, while their combined household of five children also all played, which was another key motive in pursuing the Auckland FC dream.
“We were talking about why Auckland doesn’t have a professional team and our sons are into it and all our kids are into it. And it sort of didn’t make sense.
“And then we understood where the numbers are with football in terms of more kids playing football than rugby. And we looked at it as a real opportunity around how can we change the perception of sport in this town first, and then hopefully New Zealand.”
They initially went with their own bid for the new A-League club, with support from Paris Saint-Germain, but the numbers didn’t quite work. However, they were still very passionate about what could be achieved, and after meeting Foley, they had a partnership “within about five minutes”.
Williams said the Auckland FC project had a heavy emphasis on fan engagement and “giving back to the fans”.
“Let’s work with New Zealand football and let’s drive it because we can be a successful nation in football and we can have a lot of fun doing it. Let’s challenge the norm.
“I want people to come to the stadium and make you go, ‘Oh, actually, there’s a game of football on here, but my kid’s having so much fun. My best mate’s in the corner, I’ve had a few beers, or I haven’t, and this is a whole family thing or it’s with my mates, but this is loud, there’s atmosphere, there’s energy. Oh, and there’s a game of football.’ You know what I mean?
“I think we get too nutted down with the product on the field. When it’s the product on the field, it’s the product around the field, it’s the product leading into it, it’s a product leading out of it. It’s the energy - and being in France actually taught me that.”
On this front, Williams drew parallels with his first rugby match for European champions Toulon in 2013, when he copped a yellow card from the referee.
“I was rocking. He fired me on a yellow and I walked off first game and I thought, ‘Oh man, everyone’s going to hate me’.”
But instead he drew a standing ovation from diehard fans - and that instilled in him the essence of being “a Toulon person” and providing entertainment every week.
Whether his form was good, bad or indifferent, Williams felt an underlying core sense of loyalty and support.
“That was a breaking moment for me in sport, going, ‘You’re right. This is entertainment. We’re giving to people something that they don’t have or could have ... We’re the fortunate ones that are out there on the field. Let’s give them everything’.
“And that’s, that’s what I’d really love to see Auckland FC do and provide. And, with Bill and Anna, we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.”
Williams promised nothing would be “half-cocked” with Foley and Mowbray at the helm and he took inspiration from how they operated, particularly their love and energy for doing things properly.
He even gave an insight into behind-the-scenes conversations.
“It’s pretty special listening to them. And then they get into a lot of details around business. And then I have to go, “Yeah, well, when I played’, just to sort of level it up and they do state, “Yeah, we know, we know you played, but this is some number stuff here’. And I was like, okay, cool.”
Williams is renowned for some historic legendary antics, such as an after-dark nude run on Eden Park, where he sustained an injury that threatened his All Blacks selection, or lacing Auckland’s celebratory NPC title-winning drinks with Viagra pills, and his podcast recounting of these is all good fun.
But there is also a touch of pathos in hearing him reveal personal regrets, including dyslexia, struggling to read stories to his kids, and not being more educated.
“... Which really frustrates me now that I’m getting older and I can’t actually run or show off by lifting weights - or, you know, I’m a joke.”
Williams also spoke about his experiences in 2017 when he was arrested in Paris after being caught allegedly trying to buy cocaine outside a nightclub. He was fined by Racing 92 and subsequently left the club.
“It’s one of those things where life was good. You’re flying high, things were easy. You weren’t potentially challenging yourself as much as you probably should,” he said.
“But deep down you had a fear that the road of being a professional rugby player is finishing, and I say these things in hindsight over an event that happened and I was there in the wrong time, the wrong place.”
Today he called it “a pub story” that he can tell to anyone after ending up on “the wrong side of the law”.
Williams does not have a criminal record as a result, though he said the experience was sobering.
“It was just brutal, but it was one of those moments that it’s like, you actually can’t look anywhere else apart from at yourself in the mirror and take responsibility because you did it and you put yourself in there and this is on you.
“So at the time, it was very interesting because that’s when I realised, man, I just, I have no option but to own this solely, completely.”
Williams went to the president of Racing 92 and admitted he had brought the club and its brand into disrepute.
“I’ll walk away. I apologise. And he couldn’t understand it. He said, ‘You’re not going to fight and you want your money?’ And I said, ‘Man, don’t pay me a cent from here on.
“I got to walk. And that’s what happened. He helped me out and said, ‘No, you need to stay here for a few months and get your family right’.”
Williams moved back to New Zealand and while the episode became “fish-and-chip paper to everyone else”, for him it was different.
“I think it becomes, in a weird way, top of mind for me on a daily basis, weekly basis that you’re not better than the law.”
Just as momentous for Williams was reflecting how, when he was 16, his dad fell down some stairs at Mt Smart Stadium and became a quadriplegic.
“It’s quite bizarre. It’s the first time I’ve talked about it since he passed.
“We became great mates. It moved from being a father-son relationship to mates. And the best part about your mates is they tell you the honest truth and they tell you things that you don’t want to hear.
“He would say to me, you’re not doing this or you’re doing this. And so through that rugby career, he was that mirror that never lied. So he always, always told you those things. And it really evolved as a relationship.”
Williams said the sporting world was the pinnacle of living in a bubble, and even today, when he walks into a room with all his old team-mates, it is like he never left.
“Straight away, they’re like, ‘What are you going to do stupid tonight? What are you going to do stupid? You’ll be home in about 20 minutes, mate. So we better make the most of you because you’re boring’.
Williams admits to not watching a lot of rugby these days, but says his heart is firmly with his old Blues teams and alumni.
“Even now, it (the Blues) is a special team. It’s created a lot of joy and happiness for Aucklanders and Northlanders and Harbour people, the region, I should say.
“And it’s still doing that. Leon McDonald did a great job elevating it and Vern (Cotter) is doing the same. And it’s just a very, very special club. So, yeah, whenever you can still do things with them, it’s fun.”
Williams described himself as “a very, very excitable human” but most focused on being “the best dad I can be”.
“Being an All Black is not just me. I’m more Ali the person, and there’s so many different parts about me that are still evolving and are still going to get better. And, you know, if I have more than 10 people turn up to my funeral, then life will be a success.
“So keep smiling and charge on and live life team, live life.”