Why cant any kiwis make a football career

Perhaps that explains why Paul Urlovic made is good overseas.....hmmm, he is a Kiwi with a Euro background. Driving trucks these days.

It's not really the standard of football here that is the problem. It's a two fold combination of money and the public perception (controlled by the media) of our sport.
The money issue is complicated by the fact that NZ Soccer takes so much out of the clubs (and the available funding pool) to fund their own administration & programmes because the government (through SPARC) refuses to recognise football as an elite sport. Even if the government would fund football on a head count basis we would be better off. Also in the mix is the fact that their are far to many small clubs in existence in this country and to many competitions.
The public perception is of a sport with low self esteem. This is controlled by the media who repetitively publish negative stories regarding football, essentially reinforcing rugby's position as the premier sporting code in our country. This in turn deters all but a few sponsors from getting involved (particularly at a local level).
The answer is therefore two fold. We need to get people (like Terry Siriposis) who have a passion for football and are involved in business management to get involved in clubs, then we need to reward their interest by turning up and supporting their clubs.
By supporting their clubs we will get the media attention the game needs (and deserves) and hopefully it will keep the sponsors interested. With increased media attention better stories and a more responsive media should result.
My summation is that it is nothing to do with the quality of the players. These players already exist in huge numbers around the world. It is more to do with the quality of the coaching & admin staff, sponsors, owners etc. In the past this has been very poor ( the Rufer brothers excepted) - remember Chris Turner?
Has anyone else noticed that for any NZ team to enter the A League we have to construct a completely new club? We can't get an existing club to go there?

I have never been able to understand the need for so many clubs in Auckland. There must be nearly fifty at a guess.

Roughly 30 in Christchurch - some of them based around one team. Absolutely ridiculous.

I've been on about the amount of clubs for years.  I suspect this is the reasoning behind Soccer 2's decision to keep culling the Northern League divisions. I remember once being able to count something like 10 clubs within about a 10 K radius in South Auckland. Ridiculous.

Getting back to Ronaldoknow's posting, there are some good points there but it isn't "getting" people like Terry S involved involved in the game - rather than it is more "finding" people like him who love the game and are willing to invest. I know a couple of millionaires here in Hamilton who I approached when setting up Waikato FC. They gave me their time but then said that because the amount of infighting between clubs over the years, they just wouldn't get involved even though the loved the game. Until the infighting is sorted out it's highly likely things won't change - at least here in the Waikato. My old mate THE JAM makes a good point about the selfish and narrow-mindedness of clubs and he's spot on the mark.

Yea I agree. There are already people in business that have an interest in the sport but treat the game like a rotting corpse. Maybe that is because the admin has been sub standard and to self interested. A case in point down here is the schools vs clubs argument. Thanks for the info on Central/Auckland, I wasn't aware of that. We had a great time in Auckland for the NZFC final 2 years ago. On the Friday called into Soccer Scene at Pt. Chev and bought my son some boots and other bits and pieces then on our way back to our motel passed Kiwitea St. so stopped in and had a kick around on the pitch the day before the final. The final itself was brilliant and a testament to strength of the club. Only wish the same could happen down here. People don't seem to support their club in their local area and clubs struggle when they lose their better young players to schools, especially if those players came from a so called smaller/weaker club which they don't return to. However this is not the only reason clubs struggle. In ChCh the biggest club is Burnside who have over 1000 members but can't make it in to the top grade. This year they are paying some players and may still fail to make the grade. They struggle to retain their better young players because they are perceived to be a "weak" team.

There are some good administrators but from my own personal experience they end up either not being listened to or the older heads carry the weight to outvote you.

The Burnside mens team might be weak (I'm not sure if it is, just assuming from Ronaldoknow's comments) but believe me, at the younger levels they have some class players. Last season, when I played junior-youth (15-16th grade combined) there were about 15 players in my team and all of the players were good, but some of them were phenomenal, we went the whole season unbeaten and were top of the table. I would be quite surprised if, in future, some of those players aren't playing in the NZFC or above.

    Spot on yet again. You could be mistaken for being born in Dunedin mate. In fact talking about Dunedin I see they have come to an arrangement where their schools only play midweek - check out www.soccersouth.co.nz. What a great idea.
    I know Fred Simpson (former Director of Football with Mainland) proposed exactly that - a floodlit mid week tournament for schools but the bloody schools rejected it. I am so sick of their attitude that I have flagged admin/coaching in my club for this very reason.
As to the money go round my club have tried this as well only to see it fail and end up relegated and yes it was dodgy money (how many clubs do this - come on be honest). Actually this was my idea originally as I was sick of seeing us put out average teams that struggled but it was not sustainable.
    One thing we are crying out for down here is an all weather pitch like hockey use - their model is a good example actually.
cheers.
Ronaldoknow2007-06-04 21:50:36

Yes it is weak - thrashed recently 5-0 by Western. They are paying a bunch of old men like Grosvenor and Murphy good money while they lose good players such as NZ U17 rep Geoff McIntyre & Paris Kerdemilidis to other clubs.
    Most clubs have got class players in their juniors but what do their senior sides do to encourage them to stay? For 5 years I was heavily involved in developing a youth side to play in Super Youth football in ChCh with limited success. The biggest problem we faced was getting good players promoted into the firsts! In the end it became unsustainable for us and the whole system has now folded. Frigging waste of time, not that I'm bitter or anything.
    Keep playing and aim high (I assume you are a fullback).
Ronaldoknow2007-06-04 21:59:46

I actually like Keith Grosvenor but you are right, until clubs look to a proper development programme we are just going to continue to go around in circles. Good coaches should be looking to involve talented youth. Coaches that continue to play the same old names from yesteryear because of their reputations are doing our game a disservice...and there are just too many of them. Clubs need to decide what sort of club they want to be; chasing the glory at all costs, or developing the future of the game...the talented youngsters. How many times do we see teams fork out huge bucks to win a competition and then the next season the $$$ suddenly dries up.

Again another good point raised. I believe the standard has lifted all over the country in the last few years with fewer imports which is a very good thing. The imports should be coming in to teams like the Phoenix and our local young guns should be aiming to make this team through the NZFC. These franchises have a responsibility to bring good young players through and again I think this is starting to happen. Clubs in local leagues should then remain strictly amateur. I actually approve the stance Mt Wellington have taken this season and think it is a good thing for the game. I presume they are having to promote younger talent these days?

If we were doing our thing to help out Oceania we should be looking to the islands for quality imports, rather than England. It's got to be better for oceania as a confederation to have their players playing at a good level. I havent seen a Fijian league match to know how good it is but they do get better crowds than we do.

I watched the local Fijian club final in Suva the year before last (Che Bunce was playing) and the standard wasn't too bad. Bunce didn't stand out, so quite a few of their players would cut it in the NZFC.
Imports from the Oceania region is a good idea.
Ronaldoknow2007-06-06 21:32:58

disco_mart2007-06-16 08:10:59

And that is exactly why kiwis can't make a career out of football. There is no money in the local game here and on the world stage we are nothing in reality. For every good young player here (Brockie, White, pelter et al) there are dozens in every country that runs a professional league.