Email to NZ Herald

I have fond memories of when I worked in NZ from early 1984 to late 1987 in Whangarei. My memory of the  NZ Herald then was a well researched paper that took a more national perspective and wrote about NZ in the broader sense of world at large and opportunities presented to NZ to be part of further take advantage of the world.  

Living in Australia but with fond memories I often look at online at the NZ herald and in my business advice to people wishing to understand NZ your paper is an excellent start.

Unfortunately I will no longer be able to do this as I have become increasingly uneasy about the lack of support your paper has given the Wellington Phoenix Football club in recent days. Aside from being a sport and I understand that yours sports departments are run by rugby union  folk to a large degree but when going into recession and a massive source of revenue is ignored and NZ pride is placed on the line and yet  almost no response from the NZH.

AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam said during an interview on SBS that the NZ team had to be kicked out of the Australian A-League.

Have you ever researched what playing in Asia means to a country especially the size of NZ. Lets see 4.6 billion people and a middle class now approaching the size of the middle class in the US.  The Asia middle class predicated to be between 2 & 3 billion people within 25 years. It�s called business and it�s just a tad north of NZ and most in time friendlies zones meaning the time in Japan is similar to NZ.

The business and influence the Wellington Phoenix Football club could bring NZ far exceeds anything the All Blacks or a sail boat race could achieve in 20 years. I have provided below some research material  with some comments above each link or set of links.

In closing Australian business and all levels of governments are crawling over each other to get involved in football today and only because of the Asian connection ��� it�s the main sport played in Asia the Asian sport you may say ��. traditionally countries like Australia & NZ have no cultural / religious / language   connections to Asia �.. Football is seen as the way to hold those informal talks and foster business only a sporting or cultural event can provide. Yet the NZH has done little to protect the potentially hundreds of millions of dollars over time connections like the Wellington Phoenix Football club could bring to NZ. The NZH has failed the people of NZ to inform them of what they are potentially loosing as an aside however strange this may seem in NZ ...Australia second richest man Mr Frank Lowy is fighting tooth and nail for a Wellington business ��. Yet the NZH see�s fit largely to ignore.

The Asia Football Confederation �.. look at their vision statements.

http://www.the-afc.com/eng/index.jsp.html

To show how much research is going in to developing football a couple of interesting research papers.

http://www.kolkatafootball.com/new_article.html 

http://www.kolkatafootball.com/shaji_prabhakaran_article3.html

If interested ---------what Asian Football heads thinks of Australia.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/australia/bin-hammam-sings-aussie-praises-121778/

Want some proof of what Australia thinks well here are some links.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/football/exporters-hope-socceroos-will-kick-open-new-markets/2008/06/05/1212259004789.html 

http://www.austrade.gov.au/socceroos-world-cup-qualifiers-to-help-middle-east-discover-australian-business-potential/default.aspx