Big decision facing N.Z. soccer, says coach

Press, 23 April 1984, Page 15

Big decision facing N.Z. soccer, says coach

NZPA staff correspondent Singapore

New Zealand must decide whether it wants to be taken seriously as an international soccer-playing nation or remain in the amateur league, said the coach, Allan Jones, in Singapore at the week-end.

“If we want to remain amateurs then that’s fine — you can get good results with amateurs — but we’ll fall further and further behind the levels of the people we’re playing against,” he said.

“If we are going to approach the game professionally we need the money to buy the time to prepare the players properly.” Countries such as Kuwait had spent SNZ24 million getting ready for the World Cup and flew in European national and club sides on a regular basis for practice as part of its Olympics buildup, said Mr Jones. “And good luck to them,” he said. “The money doesn’t make the Kuwaitis play any better — they’re all rich anyway — but it buys the time and the exposure to develop the players. “We’re always preparing for a match,” he said, “but we haven’t had time to teach the side to play. “We’re getting bits and pieces right but not the whole.”

New Zealand needed to be in a position to decide on a squad and put it into a training camp for three to six months before embarking on its next campaign — the 1986 World Cup, he said. “You mustn’t compare league football with international football,” said Mr

Jones. “You have to be prepared to change your thinking when you approach different teams.”

And the New Zealand squad in Singapore lacked the experience to do that, Mr Jones said.

The assistant coach, Kevin Fallon, said that the original squad, which had included Steve Sumner and Grant Turner, who had both been injured and Steve Wooddin, who had made himself unavailable, had been a good one “on paper.” “The squad we’ve got now is just not good enough. We’ve brought young lads who really shouldn’t be here,” said Mr Fallon.

“You can’t expect them to go from one season in the national league after just leaving school and expect them to compete against these soccer daft countries.” Said Mr Jones: “The pres-

sure that has been put on these young players is unbelievable and it’s very unfair.”

Mr Jones said that the question that needed to be asked was where were all the 25 to 30-year-old strikers in New Zealand? “The answer is: there’s hardly any, because we haven’t been developing them. The ones starting to come out of the youth sides still haven’t got to the stage where they’re really ready for international competition.”

Players such as Colin Tuaa and Fred de Jong would become top class players but needed two or three more years to develop, but unless more money came into the game in New Zealand to buy the time to develop players, the best — like Wynton Rufer — would be siphoned off overseas, he said.

Asked where the money would come from, Mr Jones said: “That’s not my job. My job is to coach. It’s up to the football association to decide where they want to go from here.”

Mr Jones said that he and Mr Fallon had gone to Singapore expecting to win games: “But we’re not totally down-hearted,” he said.

“I expected the side to be better but we’ve now got to assess what’s required and work out what we’re in it for.

“We’ll be going back and looking towards 1986. We have two full playing seasons to develop a World Cup squad."

Mr Jones said that although the current squad would form the basis for the cup side there was always room for new players. “There are many senior players under consideration.”

Mr Jones said the decision by the International Football Federation (F.1.F.A.) to place New Zealand in a group with Australia, Israel, Taiwan, and Fiji would not help its World Cup chances. “We’ll be getting less international exposure overall and in Israel we’ll be facing some very tough op- , position,” he said.