New Zealand’s national club football competition is an amateur one, but insiders say fierce competition for players is seeing money quietly changing hands – though official audits have found no evidence. MARTIN VAN BEYNEN reports.
Picture football’s glamorous English Premier League: Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur.
Those legendary clubs sit on top of the league thanks to ardent fans, efficient administration, and, most significantly, piles of cash. Stating the obvious, big money allows the clubs to buy the best players and coaches. In Chelsea’s case the money mostly came from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who spent more than £2 billion on player signings and another £90 million on managers before being forced to sell the club in June due to his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is by no means the only billionaire to be involved in English football.
Then shift your gaze – admittedly a big shift – to the Southern League in the South Island of New Zealand, where a supposedly amateur competition pitches 10 teams against each other for a place in the National League competition, starting in September. The winner of that gets a crack at the Oceania club championship, and if successful there, the world club champs.
Not that this generates a lot of excitement in the south, where games between the top teams can have supporters standing on sidelines rather than packing stands. There is little media coverage and players have a negligible profile.
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A world of difference separates the English Premier League from the Kiwi Southern League but in essence the clubs’ aims are the same. To get the best players and the best coaches to form the best team with the resources at their disposal. Another quirky similarity is that the Southern League also has a rich Russian involved, but more of that later.
The amateur ideal in top New Zealand club football is laudable. The idea is to create a level playing field and to nurture younger talent through the grades and into the top side. Amateur status is also designed to avoid an arms race, where the winner is the club with the deepest pockets.
But in any amateur sport, ambitious clubs vying for players will always bend the rules. Knowledgeable critics of the Southern League describe its amateur status as a “farce and a joke”. The competition is rife with allegations that certain clubs reward players with win bonuses, match fees, signing-on fees, phoney jobs, cars, accommodation and cash in brown envelopes. One coach says the question should be “which players aren’t being paid?”
This article focuses on the Southern League, but the same story could be written about the two leagues in the North Island which are part of the national club competition. If New Zealand’s top club, Auckland City, had a goal for every time it’s been accused of paying players, it would be world-beating. There’s a joke that all the fish and chip shops in Wellington charge a levy that goes directly to the Wellington Olympic club, which traditionally has strong support from Wellington’s Greek community.
In New Zealand club football, success inevitably breeds allegations of cheating. In the Southern League the main club currently in the firing line is Christchurch United, whose president is a wealthy Russian (also now a New Zealand citizen) businessman called Vyacheslav Anatolievich Meyn. Most people call him Slava.
Christchurch United has dominated the Southern League this season and, at time of writing, is undefeated. Cashmere Technical, which has faced allegations in the past, is close behind, while the rest of the teams have fallen off the pace. United’s golden run has ramped up accusations of player poaching and player payments.
The two-horse-race nature of the league worries the other eight clubs. Selwyn United president Stan Le Roy, whose senior team is bottom of the table, did not want to be interviewed, but in a statement said: “There are plenty of rumours, from credible people, that certain clubs in the South Island League are breaking the amateur rules by ‘paying’ players.
“Unfortunately, until they can be substantiated, or real evidence is forthcoming from those individuals involved, they simply remain rumours.”
He says the rumours have been raised with New Zealand Football (NZF) several times.
“To date it seems that any steps taken to investigate or substantiate any of the rumours appear to have been fruitless. This, to me, shows the lack of a genuine integrity system, for investigating these types of issues, and therefore the ability to apply any consequences for breaches.”
Meyn came to New Zealand in 2009 and generously used his own money to set up a top-notch football facility on 8ha in Yaldhurst, on the outskirts of Christchurch. It’s one of the best venues in the South Island and has two good artificial pitches. Meyn also started an academy, a school for football players charging fees, and in 2016 joined forces with Christchurch United.
Meyn’s ambition – some call it a pipe dream – is to have another New Zealand team in the Australian A League, in which New Zealand’s only professional team, the Wellington Phoenix, plays.
With coach Danny Halligan at the helm, United’s first team started to become a contender but didn’t win any competitions.
Last year the club recruited former English professional Paul Ifill, 43, who once played in an FA Cup final for Millwall, and was a star for the Phoenix, as coach, at a salary said to be in the six figures. He is assisted by Henry Quainoo, who previously coached Southern League club Coastal Spirit. Ifill still plays for short periods in most games.
Quainoo says he’s aware of allegations about United and Meyn, but says they have no basis.
“Of course I’ve heard that. [Meyn] is a wealthy man. It’s easy to think that. Slava is aware it wouldn’t set up the right culture, would it? If the players are getting paid they are here for the wrong reasons and as a coach the last thing you want to deal with is players who are just there to pick up a pay cheque.”
Every club in the Southern League compensates players in certain ways, he says, but United rewards its players within the rules.
“The players [at United] at the moment want to play for us as coaches, and we have the best infrastructure in the city, so it’s not rocket science. We have been lucky this year with quality players falling on our doorstep. Hopefully we can use that to be successful and attract more players.
“Other people can be jealous of clubs doing well and say they are breaking rules. I think that’s poor form.”
United has, or has had, some of the best players in the league. Scotsman Daniel MacLennan, who was playing in Australia, joined the team this year and quickly established himself as one of the league’s top performers.
Quainoo says MacLennan came to Christchurch with his Kiwi partner and has a job with the club arranging the uniforms.
Another valuable player, Irishman James McClay, has a coaching role at the club, and star forward Sanni Issa came to United because he wanted to play under the United coaching team, Quainoo says. He and Issa share a Nigerian background.
The club recently signed former All White Noah Billingsley, who was playing in the top football league in the United States.
Why United for him?
“Because we train three times a week. Because he can play in the national league. Because we have qualified coaches, and he knows other people in the team. Paul (Ifill) is a professional and Noah wants to try to be a professional player in a professional league,” Quainoo says.
“I’m being honest. I think the success we are having creates a lot of this … The rumours are only going to get worse. I wouldn’t be here if things are not done correctly. I wouldn’t feel comfortable, but it’s not going to stop what people are going to say.”
He says the club helps some players with accommodation and sometimes provides jobs through businesses supportive of the club, including his own construction firm.
Quainoo feels United is being picked on and suggests putting the blow torch to Cashmere Technical.
“Have you followed up with Cashmere Tech? I don’t know how they have managed to do that.”
Cashmere Technical, based at Garrick Memorial Park in Woolston, has been Christchurch’s, if not the South Island’s, most successful football club team over the last decade. It topped the Southern League last season and also won the Chatham Cup, New Zealand’s premier knockout tournament.
Local businessman Bill Cowen is its president and his drive and ability is said to be a major factor in the club’s success. He came to New Zealand from Newcastle as a schoolboy and was teased for his Geordie accent but his sports ability soon brought acceptance. As a younger man he captained Christchurch Technical, one of the clubs that was merged into Cashmere Technical.
Cashmere’s senior side is coached by Dan Schwarz, whose twin brother Tom plays in the team. The club prides itself on looking after its players and spawning its own top footballers by nurturing them through the grades. Seven players in the top men’s squad came through the club as junior and youth players. (Clubs in the Southern League have to play two under-20 players each game.)
Cashmere has arguably the best player in the Southern League in Irishman Garbhan Coughlan, who played for Limerick in the Irish league. He is employed by the club as a full-time director of football.
Cashmere’s general manager, Lisa Young, says the club does not pay players in its men’s first team any sign-on fees, match fees, win bonuses, or any other fees for playing.
She says six players in the top squad are employed by the club in development or coaching roles. Some players are reimbursed expenses. Players find Cashmere Technical attractive because of its excellent coaches and training facilities, she says.
New Zealand Football (NZF) is responsible for enforcing the amateur rules and says a fully professional football league is not feasible in New Zealand.
In written answers to questions, NZF said players are required to sign Amateur Player Agreements with their clubs “to ensure their obligations as an amateur player”.
“This includes confirmation that the maximum and only reimbursement an amateur player can receive for playing from their club is $150 per week to cover playing-related expenses (travel, kit, insurance, gym membership etc).”
NZF says it conducted six club audits in the first year of the present league competition (it started in 2021) and is in the process of conducting another six in 2022.
“To date, there hasn’t been any evidence of clubs breaking the rules discovered by this process. Regardless, we are aware there are insinuations within the football community that player payments and excess player reimbursement is taking place within the new competition structure.
“In 2023 New Zealand Football will look to adapt and evolve its approach to this issue, look at other methods to ensure clubs are acting within the rules and will continue to work closely with the Department of Internal Affairs.
“Since launching the new competition model, we haven’t had any allegations made (by clubs, players or other parties) where sufficient evidence has been provided to verify the claim. We remain committed to investigating accusations when they arise, but they must be evidence-based, not founded on rumour or hearsay.”
Penalties for paying players are severe. If a professional player is found to have played in an amateur competition, all games they played are forfeited.
Christchurch United’s Russian connection helps fuel the worst of the rumours and is problematic, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Meyn blames on Nato and the Americans.
Meyn and his family emigrated to New Zealand in 2009. The family had also applied for residency in Australia, but New Zealand was first to complete the paperwork.
Meyn was a successful businessman and local politician in his hometown, Nakhodka, a port city in Russia’s far east near Vladivostok. After military service he went into the Customs Service and was deputy mayor for a short period. He was also president of the local football club, Okean Nakhodka, which played in the third tier of the Russian league.
In 2014 he told Stuff sports reporter Tony Smith he started his business career importing goods from China and also selling building products locally.
His company manufactured prefabricated houses and he and his business partners also began importing food products from Korea, China and other countries.They became co-owners of the Ratimir company, now one of the largest meat processors in the region. He remains a minor shareholder in the company.
Meyn says it’s possible to operate successfully as an honest businessman in Russia. His hometown certainly sounds like an interesting place to conduct commerce.
In his book The Politics of Security in Russia and Korea, Seoul University academic Se Hyun Ahn writes that foreign investment in Nakhodka has been discouraged by local criminal activities.
“Although regional officials hoped that the holding of an APEC investment conference in September 2002 would call attention to investment opportunities in the Russian Far East in general, a number of contract killings of regional officials and businesspeople around the time of the international meeting did little to enhance Nakhodka’s reputation.”
A 2013 report from PWC on doing business in Russia says any business looking into Russia requires “a strong and unwavering focus on corruption-related challenges”.
However, Meyn says: “I don’t see any more signs of corruption in Russia than in any other country.”
He chose New Zealand because it is a great place to raise a family and says it gives his children a better understanding and awareness of the world.
He laughs at the allegations he is paying players cash under the table. After banking sanctions were imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February, he says he has had problems getting money from his Russian businesses.
“I couldn’t even get money for my family. There was a stage when I thought I needed to close the club.
“[Players] aren’t offered free cars, and we don’t offer to pay their rent. I am aware that unfounded rumours have been around about me and Christchurch United for some years, but I would hope that you don’t listen to those.”
His money troubles had prompted some changes.
“We try to run Christchurch United on a lean budget. We seek sponsorship, we have reduced staff, we have plenty of great volunteer parents and people from the community.”
Meyn says he supports Christchurch United with his own funds, and it was the first club audited by NZF. No issues were raised.
His focus, he says, is paying the club’s coaches and the development of the club’s academy.
He is proud to have the best squad at the moment but “it is nothing about money”.
“It’s about good quality, good atmosphere, good facility. I don’t want to buy titles. It is against our strategy and our philosophy. I could have bought players before, in 2016 and 2017, but didn’t do it.”
Five of the club’s academy players, including his son Daniel, 17, participated in first team games this season, he says. Three more youth players (under 20) are involved in the first team squad.
“We are confident that in years to come the Christchurch United Academy will prove to be a great source of players for the first team.”
All this means that the next game between Christchurch United and Cashmere Technical on August 20 at the latter’s home ground will be the most watched and anticipated match of the season.
Although both teams will almost certainly qualify for the national championships, their increasing rivalry should produce a fierce and intense contest. When they last played this season, United blitzed Cashmere 4-0.
But for the coming fixture, United will be without some of its best players this season. MacLennan is injured, Issa is playing in Fiji after having a visa issue, and James McClay may not be back from Ireland in time.
Meyn is confident his team can plug the gaps with his young players.
Do you have information that can add to this story? Contact martin.vanbeynen@stuff.co.nz in confidence.
Wherever the balance of strength between the teams lies, a famous rivalry is building.
The United/Cashmere match-up could eventually join the list of those famously vehement football rivalries between Spurs and Arsenal, Celtic and Rangers, Real Madrid and Barcelona, Brazil and Argentina, and Manchester United and Liverpool.
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