N.Z. coach’s job in balance

Press, 16 June 1982, Page 6

N.Z. coach’s job in balance

From

DAVID LEGGAT

in Marbella The future of Mr John Adshead as. manager of the New Zealand soccer team hangs well and truly in the balance as he awaits a further, better offer from the New Zealand Football Association. Mr Adshead has turned down the first offer of a new contract ,as the national coach, which he described as “laughable.” At present, he has the job until July 31. “Unless there is a change, there is no job for me in New Zealand,” he said last evening, just hours before New Zealand’s first game against Scotland. “I am quite happy to meet the N.Z.F.A. again. I am in no hurry to leave New Zealand.” Mr Adshead has received no other offer of any sort since the national squad arrived in Spain. Mr Adshead did not deny remarks attributed to him in an Australian newspaper report yesterday. In the report Mr Adshead is quoted as saying that "these people have offered me a contract which is the biggest joke ever. Financially it is less than New Zealand club coaches get, and they get almost nothing.” However, while the story is substantially correct his remarks have been embellished to some degree.

Mr Adshead has not been “sacked” as the story suggested and the man in charge of New Zealand’s World Cup programme, Mr Charlie Dempsey, said there was “no intention” that he should not continue in the job.

Mr Dempsey conceded that, financially, the rejected offer was small. “It is not a handsome offer, but how can you make an offer with something you have not got,” he said. “We want to retain John Adshead and Kevin Fallon. We want New Zealand football to learn from being here. If we can build on our experience here it would be absolutely crazy to get rid of them.” The national director of coaching, Mr Allan Jones, has signed a new contract with the N.Z.F.A. If he had not be would not be in Spain now. There is some suggestion of a move to promote him ahead of Mr Adshead. The working relationship between Messrs Adshead and Jones, who is in charge of the national under-19 squad, is a “grey area,” which has to be cleared up, said Mr Dempsey. Mr Dempsey said that there had been no financial guarantees from competing at this, the biggest of all, world sporting extravaganzas.