Can you imagine the stink up and down the country if the Phoenix became closely aligned to NZ football,you can only imagine the shit that would be kicked up.So if the A league did expand with another NZ team im guessing they would also have this close association with NZ football.Yes NZ football needs to do things better,but sadly until the so called right people put their hands up how are they meant to do it.Everyone can relate or recount to the "scratch my back" stories in football.You wont convince me that having your national association aligned to a proffesional club is a good thing.
Whats also ridiculous is that people also assume that because he has been successful in business this will mean it will also work in football.
I'm struggling to understand how aligning the national football association with NZ footballs only professional pathway is a bad thing? Maybe you can enlighten me. Sure there'll be a bit of shit kicked up, but that shit will most likely come from exactly the same people that are causing the current issues.
So what if Gareth knows nothing about football, he certainly seems to know how to stimulate change; you can't have any effect on an imbedded culture by lightly stepping around the sides.
I guess you could see Gareth as aspiring to be the Frank Lowy of football here - notice I say "aspiring" as there are major differences such as Lowy's long association with football in Australia (Gareth being a late-comer), his prominent position in Australian football since becoming Chairman of the FFA in 2003 and his much greater wealth (fluctuates yearly between being the wealthiest or second wealthiest Australian; Jerusalem Post has him as "one of the 50 wealthiest Jews in the world", thought to be worth about 6.9 billion AU dollars).
Lowy first launched a bid to transform football in Australia decades ago but was rebuffed until being appointed Chair of the FFA in 2003 when his ideas and money were finally accepted as being key.
I get the impression Lowy has a much more acute understanding of football gained over several decades than Gareth does.
Lowy was president and prime financial backer of the old NSL's then most successful club, Sydney City Hakoah 1977-88 (a Jewish community club) - Frank Lowy said at the time and in his biography that he was frustrated because the Australian Soccer Federation and NSL leaders did not share his vision for the game. He had stood for the presidency of the ASF against Sir Arthur George and lost, and he withdrew from both football and the presidency of Hakoah at the end of 1988:
http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/03/05/the-day-that-frank-lowy-took-his-ball-and-went-home/
Other differences: I get the impression Soccer Australia's woes were actually worse than ours - even more incompetent management (once had the phones cut off at head office in the 1990's after failing to pay the bill)
- major problem with ethnic basis of most major clubs leading to non-cooperation in running competitions, fan conflict etc.
- strong state federations hindering the national growth of the sport- sometimes opposed to a national league, self-interested etc.
It took a government inquiry into the shambles of football administration (The Crawford Inquiry 2002) and Prime Minister John Howard's intervention to form a new, more competent national body, the FFA with Frank Lowy as chairman. This reflects the greater public and government concern for football in Australia by 2002 as a matter of national prestige.
A fascinating blog by Soccer Australia's former Marketing Manager Jim Shomos on the shambles that was football in Oz and how Lowy saved it:
http://www.jimshomos.com/?p=151
"I was Marketing Manager at Soccer Australia (now FFA) in 1996/97. I could write a book about the internal cancer but it would be too depressing to write, let alone read. However, we do need to remember where we came from to appreciate and respect how much has been achieved in the last nine years.
One example sums up the incompetence of leadership of the NSL days. One morning at Soccer Australia office we had the phones cut off. A National Sporting body responsible for a high-profile National League and five National teams… couldn't pay its telephone bill… and had the phones cut off. It was a miracle that someone in the media didn't pick up on it. Today it would have been all over Facebook and twitter in minutes. One of the Soccer Australia board members, representing the State Federations, proudly talked about why the NSL had to end and how it was his mission to end it. Yes, this was a board member of Soccer Australia, supposedly representing the Australian grass-roots football community. Three ugly spectator incidents in the 96/97 NSL season were blown up in the media as major riots/acts of violence."