Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Vinjay said:
Age must have been a factor in the decision. Both seem like suitable candidates but makes sense to go with a 44 year old over a 60 year old.
and a bloke who's been in European football at the highest level against a Kiwi Rugby Union man
Not really fair, though I do agree that Soriano is the best man for the job. First of all John O'Neill is Australian and he was the CEO of the ARU and Soccer Australia when Australia Rugby and Australian football went through their respective golden ages.
Under JO'N's leadership Australia won the 1999 rugby world cup, the tri-nations (effectively the southern hemisphere championship), the Bledsoe cup (a cup b/w Aus and NZ, which is the be all and end all) a couple of times and the British and Irish lions tour. He won the rights for Aus to host the Rugby world cup in 2003, which left the ARU in its strongest financial position ever.
He also preceded over Australian Rugby's transition to the professional era - something they had resisted ferverently up to that point and as such they were falling behind the other major sports codes in Aus.
He was then recruited to be the CEO of Soccer Australia. He was responsible for getting Australian to change confederations so that they had regular top level internationals against Asian opposition. He also recruited Gus Hiddink who got the Socceroos to their first world cup finals in yonks - they were knocked by a dubious penalty decision against the eventual champions Italy. He also revamped the domestic competition, which was floundering, by launching the A-Leauge, which has grown slowly over the years and now has 10 strong teams - a lot for Australia.
Then he moved back to Aus rugby where he has recruited the first foreign national team coach of Aus, who happens to be the most successful club coach of all time - slight clarification on that stat is that international level is still a notch above club level in ruby. He also revamped super rugby, which is no mean feat as he has to negotiate with the kiwis and saffas as well. The competition was split into 3 national based conferences and has been succesful. He fought for Aus getting a 5th team in the comp, even though they didn't have the player depth to support it, and got Aus a huge increase on their cut of the television income even though they generate the least of it.
By all accounts he is a bloody hard-nosed negotiator, who is very good at his job. He is more focused on the top end of the game than the grass roots, as he believes that top end success will bring people to any sport. He would have done well but the Barca chap will bring with him fan philosophy that would have kept them happy.
IMO if you were looking for someone to purely manage the financial side of things then there is no better man than O'Neill, but if your looking for someone with a philosophy then Soriano is your man. IMO city have probably made the right choice, but only because O'N is like the Mourinho of sports administration. Damn good, but it would be another case of 'I am bigger than the club'.
He almost certainly would have tried to recruit Mourinho. It would have been damn interesting as you would have had the two biggest egos in the world at the same club.
