United has reached crunch—chairman

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 38

United has reached crunch—chairman

By DAVID LEGGAT Christchurch Brother United’s chairman, Mr Alex Fox, admitted yesterday that it was his decision alone to deliver a stern verbal warning on the club’s Rothmans Soccer League future after last Sunday’s disastrous defeat at English Park. Immediately after the 3-0 loss to National Mutual Miramar, which was United’s third consecutive defeat, Mr Fox said that the time had arrived when the club would have to carefully consider its future in the national league. Time is running out this season, he said, for United’s players to prove that the club should remain in the

league, of which it was a founding member. United and Masport Mount Wellington are the only clubs to have survived in the competition since it began in 1970. The team’s bad fbrm was reflected at the turnstiles and made a difficult situation for the club’s sponsor. Mr Fox made his remarks at the after-match function, before the players and officials from Miramar, as well as the United players. The men from Miramar were clearly surprised at what they heard. The players of United, along with their coach, Laurie Blyth, were obviously angry at what seemed to them to be a public castiga-

tion, and left immediately for a meeting in the dressing rooms below.

Mr Fox had not informed the directors of the United board that he intended to speak out on Sunday. After his speech, some of the directors “expressed their reservations” at the fact that his words were not confined to the playing and coaching staff alone. “I accept their point of view,” he added, although he would not be drawn on whether he regretted his actions. “I had thought about it over a period of days. If the results were bad something had to be said,” he said. Mr Fox disputed the importance of whether his words should have been for public

consumption or not — “I don’t think that’s the real point. It needed to be said.” Mr Fox said that prime concern of the club is to “pay the bills.” There was more to a soccer club than the players, he added. “The supporters and shareholders have an interest in the team’s performances and in the view of the management,” said Mr Fox.

“The team is running out of time to prove itself. It is up to the team to perform. If they don’t, people aren’t going to come and watch. “If we end up low in the league, it is very hard for a sponsor to justify sponsorship for 1986,” he said. United’s sponsor, Brother Distributors, has an option to continue its involvement next year. It has until October 31 to exercise that option. Mr Fox said there had been no discussions yet with the sponsor regarding 1986. The United chairman stressed that he had respect for the players, and Mr Blyth “for their skills and dedication. But as a team they need to'improve.” There is no chance of United pulling out of the national league before the end of this season, said Mr Fox, even though the club is feeling the financial pinch at present. Mr Fox admitted that United has “got a bit to do” to pay the costs of this season, but would not reveal specific figures. He did, however, point out that each trip the team makes to Auckland — five this season — costs the club just over $4200.

Mr Fox said the United board would wait until the 1985 campaign was over before studying the feasibility of remaining in the competition. Notwithstanding his claim that United’s withdrawal would be “a great shame for football in Canterbury,” crunch time has most certainly arrived for the South Island's most successful soccer club.