New Zealand Knights FC
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| New Zealand Knights F.C. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | New Zealand Knights Football Club Ltd |
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| Nickname(s) | The Knights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1999 (as Football Kingz F.C.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dissolved | 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Ericsson Stadium, Auckland (as Football Kingz F.C.),
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland |
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| Chairman | (former)Anthony Lee, (last)New Zealand Soccer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | n/a | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | NSL as Football Kingz F.C. (1999-2004),
A-League (2005-2007). |
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| A-League 2006-07. | 8th. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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New Zealand Knights Football Club (known as Football Kingz Football Club until 2004) were the only professional football (soccer) team in New Zealand before they became defunct. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they played in the Hyundai A-League, Australia's premier football competition and have since been replaced by the Wellington Phoenix.
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[edit] History
[edit] Past History in the NSL 1999-2004
The Football Kingz F.C. joined the Australian National Soccer League in 1999 and proceed to play for the last 5 seasons of NSL. They were placed 8th of 16 in 1999-2000 season, 8th of 14 in 2000-01, 13th of 13 in 2001-02, 11th of 13 in 2002-03 and 13th of 13 in 2003-04. For the first two seasons, Player/Coach and Oceania Player of the Century's Wynton Rufer with his brother Shane as assistant coach guided the franchise into their most successful seasons in the first two seasons at 8th place. However after those two seasons, the owners fired Wynton Rufer as coach but still wanted him to remain as a player. However Wynton Rufer's desire was to remain as coach and to retired slowly as a player, but once it was clear that he was not to be a coach, he immediately retired being a player. Since then Football Kingz had struggled to reach 8th place and had won the wooden spoon twice in last three seasons of the NSL.
[edit] Restructuring Football Kingz F.C. into New Zealand Knights F.C.
Football Kingz F.C. then had a name change into New Zealand Knights as a new restructured franchise for Australia's new national football competition called the Hyundai A-League. Market research carried out by the club, to determine the viability of a new identity for the team, indicated that 76% of respondents were in favour of a name change. When that research was focused on those aged 35 and under, the percentage in favour of a change rose to 90%. Further to that, the name of "Knights" were polled best of all names suggested in the survey, a clear 30% higher than any other option.[1]
The former Football Kingz F.C. General manager Guy Hedderwick has been promoted to the role of New Zealand Knights chief executive officer. The former Football Kingz F.C. Chairman as well as being Waitakere City Chairman, Anthony Lee, became the New Zealand Knights Chairman in the restructuring. [2]
Anthony Lee has invested into the New Zealand Knights, with his company's (Total Football Ltd) 20% shareholding second only to majority owner Brian Katzen's Octagon Sport (later included Maurice Cox as partner) with 60%. The other shareholders are Sky Television (5%), Chris Turner (10%), and New Zealand Soccer (non cash 5%). [3]
First new sponsor to sign up to the New Zealand Knights campaign was announced as the Food retailer Zero's New Zealand (Sub Sandwiches). They agreed to a deal with the Knights over the first three seasons in a six figure deal as a sleeve sponsor. [4]
New Zealand Knights was confirmed one of the eight founding teams in the Hyundai A-League. [4]John Adshead, who took the New Zealand national side, the All Whites to their only ever World Cup finals appearance in 1982 was named their inaugural manager/coach. [1] Current New Zealand international defender Danny Hay, who previously played in the English Premiership with Leeds United A.F.C. was named captain of the team.
[edit] New Zealand Knights A-League seasons 2005-2007
Despite having a squad boasting several players with extensive experience in English football, many pundits did not rate the Knights as serious contenders for the A-League title, and they were considered favourites for the wooden spoon. These predictions turned out to be true, with the New Zealand Knights proving to be terribly out of their depth in their debut A-League season.
In April 2006, after the poor season, manager John Adshead resigned from the club[5]. Paul Nevin was confirmed as manager a month later[6], having worked as caretaker manager since the position was vacated by Adshead.
In late October 2006, as a result of low crowd attendance at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland and continual poor on-field performances, rumours began to circulate that the Football Federation Australia was considering the possibility of revoking the Knights' A-League licence and granting it to a new team that would be set to enter the competition in the 2007-08 season.
On 15 November and nearing the end of the November transfer window New Zealand Knights board and management decided to relieve Paul Nevin of his coaching duties due to a string of poor performances. [7].
On 13 December 2006, strong rumours resurfaced that the FFA was considering the revocation of the Knights' licence to compete in the A-League. It quickly became clear that, with five weeks remaining in the current season, the FFA fully intended to reclaim the licence from the Knights [8]. The FFA had continued to express angst at low attendance numbers, poor on-field performance and the lack of domestically developed players (ibid).
Late on 14 December, the FFA announced that it had revoked the competition licence held by the Knights' owners. An arrangement with NZ Soccer would see the national body step in to manage the club for the remaining five weeks of the regular season, with former All Whites player Ricki Herbert to fill the role of Head Coach [9].
Effectively, the Knights dissolved on 21 January, when the final match of the season was played against Perth Glory.
On March 19, 2007 after several delays[10], Wellington Phoenix was selected as the successor to the New Zealand Knights.[11]
[edit] Stadium
North Harbour Stadium is a stadium situated in Albany on Auckland's North Shore in New Zealand. It was opened in 1997 after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction. Rugby and soccer are the only sports played on the main ground, as it is strictly rectangular.
North Harbour Stadium has four main seating areas with an official capacity of 25,000. 19,000 (76%) of this capacity is seated, and the other 6,000 are on grass embankments.
- Main Grandstand — A futuristic looking structure with a distinctive arched roof. It has three main tiers of seating, as well as a row of corporate boxes and several corporate lounges. A total of 12,000 can be seated, mostly under the roof. This is on the southern side of the ground.
- Open Stand — A single uncovered tier opposite the Main Grandstand that can seat 7,000.
- Embankments — At either end (East/West) of the ground, there is a single-tier grass embankment with a capacity of 3,000 people. The scoreboard is at the Western End, while the replay screen is directly opposite.
The stadium is lit with four 45m tall light towers.
[edit] Colours and badge
The Knights played in all-black strips, with a silver left sleeve. The change strip was white, with black shorts and white socks.
The badge was designed for the inaugural 2005-06 season and launched at the January 2005 press conference which highlighted the club name change[1].
[edit] Supporters
The New Zealand Knights supporter base was known as Bloc 5.
| Season | League | Average | High | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006/2007 | A-League | 3,009 | 7,304 | R1 - Newcastle Jets |
| 2005/2006 | A-League | 3,989 | 9,827 | R2 v Sydney FC |
| 2003/2004 | NSL | 1,273 | 4,083 | R1 v Newcastle United |
| 2002/2003 | NSL | 2,613 | 3,682 | R7 v Melbourne Knights |
| 2001/2002 | NSL | 3,874 | 8,121 | R2 v South Melbourne |
| 2000/2001 | NSL | 6,620 | 13,111 | R23 v Marconi |
[edit] Noted Players
[edit] Football Kingz FC Managers in NSL
| Name | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||||
| Wynton Rufer |  |
October 1999 | April 2001 | 64 | 27 | 12 | 25 | 109 | 111 | -2 | 91 |
| Mike Petersona | |
October 2001 | October 2001 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 14 | -8 | 1 |
| Shane Ruferb | |
November 2001 | November 2001 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Kevin Fallon | |
November 2001 | April 2002 | 18 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 18 | 41 | -23 | 9 |
| Ken Dugdalec |  |
September 2002 | November 2003 | 32 | 7 | 7 | 18 | 36 | 63 | -27 | 28 |
| Tommy Mason | |
November 2003 | February 2004 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 15 | 33 | -18 | 11 |
| Total | October 1999 | February 2004 | 136 | 40 | 26 | 70 | 188 | 265 | -77 | 146 | |
[edit] New Zealand Knight FC Managers in A-League
| Name | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||||
| John Adshead | |
January 2005 | April 2006 | 21 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 15 | 47 | -32 | 6 |
| Paul Nevin | |
May 2006 | November 2006 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 26 | -22 | 7 |
| Barry Simmondsd | |
November 2006 | November 2006 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 2 |
| Ricki Herberte | |
December 2006 | January 2007 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 10 |
| Total | August 2005 | January 2007 | 42 | 6 | 7 | 29 | 28 | 86 | -58 | 25 | |
[edit] New Zealand Knights F.C.'s All Time A-League Records
- Record Victory: 3-1 vs Queensland Roar (H), December 29, 2006
- Record Defeat: 0-5 vs Queensland Roar (A), September 15, 2006
- Record A-League Crowd: 9,827 vs Sydney FC, September 2, 2005
- Smallest Crowd: 1,632 vs Central Coast Mariners, September 28, 2006
- Winning Streak: 2 games (December 29, 2006 - January 7, 2007
- Undefeated Streak: 3 games (December 29, 2006 - January 21, 2007)
- Losing Streak: 11 games (September 18, 2005 - December 1, 2005)
- Winless Streak: 18 games (September 18, 2005 - September 2, 2006)
- Goals in a game: 2 - Jeremy Brockie vs Newcastle Jets (H), November 4, 2005
- Goals in a season: 4 - Jeremy Brockie, Simon Yeo, 2005/06
- Assists in a season: 3 - Sean Devine, 2005/06
- All time most Games: 41 - Darren Bazeley
- All time most Goals: 4 - Jeremy Brockie and Simon Yeo
[edit] Achievements
Last Place in NSL: 2001-02, 2003-04
Last Place in A-League: 2005-06, 2006-07
[edit] See Also
[edit] Notes
a Caretaker manager during October 2001. b Caretaker manager for two games. c Resigned after 8 games in 2003. d Caretaker manager after Paul Nevin was removed of coaching duties. e Caretaker manager for the remainder of the season before the club was to be defunct.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Kingz are now the New Zealand Knights. Television New Zealand (January 14th, 2005).
- ^ Kingz reconstruction confirmed. Television New Zealand (September 29th, 2004).
- ^ Kingz in new A-League. Television New Zealand (November 1st, 2004).
- ^ a b Kingz are in. Television New Zealand (October 26th, 2004).
- ^ Adshead resigns from Knights. New Zealand Television (April 10, 2006).
- ^ Nevin confirmed as manager. New Zealand Television (May 11, 2006).
- ^ Nevin relieved of duties. New Zealand Television (November 15, 2006).
- ^ NZ Soccer willing to rescue 'embarrassing' Knights. NZ Herald (December 14, 2006).
- ^ Knights have licence revoked by soccer body. NZ Herald (December 14, 2006).
- ^ "A-League deadline becomes 'a farce'", Stuff.co.nz, 2007-03-09. Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
- ^ "Kiwis alive as Townsville pulls pin", Fox Sports, 2007-03-19. Retrieved on 2007-03-19.
