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The real story of how John O’Neill turned Manchester City down

Spiro Zavos — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:30:13 +0000

During the 2011 Rugby World Cup tournament, the CEO of the ARU, John O’Neill, was surprised to be contacted by club directors of the English Premier League leaders, Manchester City.

“Would you be interested in becoming chief executive of the club?”, he was asked. The offer was flattering.

As Michael Cockerill, the excellent football writer for the SMH, stated in breaking the story, chief executive of Manchester City is “one of the biggest jobs in world sport.”

O’Neill was intrigued about the persistence of chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and the other directors in pursuing him.

One of the reasons they put forward to him is that it is very, very rare in world sport for an executive to have such a long run of successes as he (O’Neill) has had.

These successes embrace two major world sports: rugby and football. O’Neill has twice rescued the ARU from the brink of collapse.

The first time was in 1996 when a players revolt threatened to destroy the financial integrity of the code in Australia. By the time O’Neill was effectively pushed out by a power play from disaffected and overly-ambitious officials, the ARU had, for the first time in its history, a bank credit of over $40 million.

When he came back the second time, in 2008, the officials had managed to spend most the money. With the Wallabies eliminated in the quarter finals of the 2007 RWC tournament, rugby in Australia was in a shambles.

At the launch of 2012 FxPro Super Rugby tournament yesterday, the ARU showcased a terrific season of rugby for its supporters. For the first time there will be Super Rugby for most of the winter season. In the past, the Super Rugby tournament finished in May, and last year, in July.

A Super Rugby season flowing into August will create a box office bonanza for rugby, especially as this end part of the season involves local derbies and then finals.

O’Neill was a driving force, from 1996 onwards, to get five Australian franchises. He had to fight off opposition within Australia that there weren’t enough players of quality in Australia to support five teams.

Well, last year the Reds won their first Super Rugby tournament, something they could not achieve when all the rugby talent in Australia was divided between them, the NSW Waratahs and the ACT Brumbies.

O’Neill pointed out at the launch that 7 of the top 10 Pay TV programs ever have been rugby programs. And all seven of them were played last season. Fox Sports’ season average audience for live matches last season was 41 per cent higher than the previous season.

By achieving a tournament where all the competing countries have five teams, SANZAR has been able to bring far more rugby to Australians than ever before. In 2012, there will be 12 local derbies in the first 9 rounds and 20 over the course of the season.

Moreover, the finals structure ,which he pushed for six teams, with each franchise guaranteed a place for its top side, means that for the first round of the finals anyway, one of the matches will be played in Australia.

Last season both the Reds and Waratahs made the finals.

It is this record over a long period of time that drew the attention of Manchester City bosses to O’Neill. This and his record of setting up the A-League in Australia, the greatest advance for the football code here in its history.

O’Neill also showed strategic skills in getting Australian football out of FIFA’s Oceania conference and into the lucrative and powerful Asian Conference.

It is at that time when he was plotting these moves that O’Neill impressed the movers and shakers of world football.

Cockerill claims that O’Neill “has just missed out” on the Manchester City job. A piece in The Roar claimed he was ‘overlooked’.

Wrong.

The fact of the matter is that the job offer involved many millions of pounds. Sheikh Mansour, after all, has poured more than $2 billion into Manchester City. The money has seen the club transform itself from second tier football into a championship contender in the Premier League for the first time since 1968.

Shiekh Mansour was prepared to lavish money on getting O’Neill to sign.

The problem with the overtures was that O’Neill, at age 60, is winding down his career as an executive. He stands down from the ARU in 2013 as its CEO. He refused to make a play for the CEO of the IRB last year for the same reasons he turned down the offer from Manchester City.

The offer came about 10 years too late for him.

His attraction for Manchester City was his record of transforming organisations from a shambles to a success story. But this is a job that will take at least five years, probably more, to entrench. So the real story about the Manchester City job is that O’Neill turned it down.

The new chief executive of Manchester City is the Spaniard and former Barcelona general manager, Ferran Soriano. Soriano is 44, the right age for such a punishing and problematical executive appointment.

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Yesterday’s most commented articles

The real story of how John O’Neill turned Manchester City down [66 comments]
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Article link: The real story of how John O’Neill turned Manchester City down. Written by Spiro Zavos, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

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Spiro Zavos — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:37:17 +0000

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Spiro Zavos — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:20:59 +0000

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Michael Clarke was right on sending India in, but…

Spiro Zavos — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:10:30 +0000

Alright, I’ll admit it, I was wrong in my criticism of Michael Clarke for winning the toss and putting India into bat in the third Test at the WACA in Perth. My argument was that when you give an opposition, especially a weak opposition, the first use of the pitch, you also give that team [...]

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Warner saves Clarke from the mistake of not batting first

Spiro Zavos — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:51:21 +0000

At the end of the day – and what a sensational first day of cricket it was at the WACA – Michael Clarke will claim his decision to send India in to bat was totally justified. A lethargic and forlorn Indian side was bowled out for 161. Australia in less than a session scored 149 [...]

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Is Michael Clarke set for another big score at Perth?

Spiro Zavos — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:28:52 +0000

Michael Clarke’s mammoth 329 not out at the SCG during the second Australia-India Test in the 2011/2012 summer boosted his Test average from 46 to 48. This is likely to be a one-off huge increase. Outside of Don Bradman throughout his entire, and the occasional brilliant season by individual players, it is most unusual for [...]

Article link: Is Michael Clarke set for another big score at Perth?. Written by Spiro Zavos, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

SCG’s 100th Test is forever the Michael Clarke Test

Spiro Zavos — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:34:53 +0000

Around 1.30 on the fourth day of the Australia-India Test at the SCG, Richie Benaud turned to his fellow Channel 9 commentators, Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor, all of them long-term and splendid captains of Australia, and said: “I’ve got a question for you”. “Is a draw or an Australian victory the only possible result [...]

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Spiro Zavos — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:35:14 +0000

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Spiro Zavos — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:04:08 +0000

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Spiro Zavos — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:35:26 +0000

Ian Chappell, the best of the Channel 9 commentary team in my view, made the point as India was collapsing like a flimsy building in an earthquake in its second inning at the MCG that a team like Australia can re-build more quickly when it has a strong fast bowling attack. As Chappell was making [...]

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Spiro Zavos — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:17:56 +0000

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Spiro Zavos — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:36:43 +0000

Some years ago, I chatted in the stands of the SCG, during a slow patch in a Test match, with Peter Roebuck. Chatting is not strictly the word to describe the conversion. Roebuck did not do chat. It was a serious discussion about life, politics, writing and the problems facing cricket and many other things. [...]

Article link: How Peter Roebuck inspired Ed Cowan’s rise into the Test team. Written by Spiro Zavos, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

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Spiro Zavos — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:43:41 +0000

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Article link: Hughes can save his career by reverting to his old style. Written by Spiro Zavos, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

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Spiro Zavos — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:40:52 +0000

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Spiro Zavos — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:44:31 +0000

France’s Bernard Lapasset was re-elected chairman of the International Rugby Board by a 14 – 12 vote over former vice-chairman, England’s Bill Beaumont, at a meeting in Los Angeles on Monday, according to details of the official media release. South Africa’s Oregan Hoskins (SARU president) was elected vice-chairman after defeating Beaumont on the chairman’s casting [...]

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Black Caps win a cricket Test for the history books

Spiro Zavos — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:10:28 +0000

Defeating Australia in a cricket Test is the equivalent for the Black Caps of winning a Rugby World Cup tournament for the All Blacks. It is 26 years since New Zealand has won a cricket Test in Australia, two years longer than the All Blacks RWC drought. Like the All Blacks in RWC 2011, too, [...]

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The Wallabies ruin Shane Williams’ farewell Test

Spiro Zavos — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:04:19 +0000

There is always a sense of gratitude and sorrow when a truly great rugby player like the Welsh wizard Shane Williams plays his farewell Test. The gratitude, even from supporters of sides other than Wales, is for the wonderful memories his dash, step, enthusiasm for attacking rugby and panache brought to international rugby. The sorrow [...]

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So far, so good for the young Australian bowlers

Spiro Zavos — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:31:57 +0000

It’s early days in the Australia versus New Zealand Test at Brisbane, for the new players and the new management team. But taking five wickets in two sessions represents a good start for the (green) baggy green caps. There was history in the fact that taking two new fast bowlers into a Test, with not one [...]

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James O’Connor must be the long-term Wallaby number 10

Spiro Zavos — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:51:50 +0000

It wasn’t a perfect 10 out of 10 performance by James O’Connor in the Wallabies’ (60) monstering of the Barbarians (11) at Twickenham. More like an 8 out of 10. There was a pass that went astray in a planned move and occasionally the youngster took the ball into heavy traffic instead of feeding his [...]

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What and who next for the Baggy Greens?

Spiro Zavos — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:29:20 +0000

Michael Clarke is proving to be a terrific captain, certainly far superior to Ricky Ponting and already he is showing signs of being another Tubby Taylor in the way he manipulates his bowlers. His performance as captain was an important part of this victory over South Africa. I would add as a plangent after-thought, that [...]

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Peter Roebuck: The best cricket writer of his generation

Spiro Zavos — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:54:15 +0000

Peter Roebuck was a competent and thoughtful cricketer. He was good enough to play for Somerset’s second eleven when he was only 13 and to achieve a first class batting average of 37, scoring 17,558 runs and 33 centuries, and capturing 72 wickets at 49. At the end of his playing career he became a [...]

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The Saggy Green Caps: A new Test side is needed!

Spiro Zavos — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:45:08 +0000

Most of the talk about Australia’s woeful performance in the first Test against South Africa has focused on the second inning collapse for 47 runs, the lowest score by Australia in a Test match in 109 years. But this batting mediocrity was matched by a similar failure of the bowling attack in South Africa’s second [...]

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Yes! It’ll be a bumper season of great rugby in 2012

Spiro Zavos — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:06:39 +0000

The cock-a-doodle-do announcement by the ARU yesterday unveiling rugby ‘latest jewel in the crown’ tournament, The Rugby Championship (The Castrol Edge Championship in ARU marketing), represents a giant step forward for the game in Australia. At last, rugby in Australia has a schedule of attractive matches stretching from March through to December to sell to [...]

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Graham Henry retires from the All Blacks as their greatest coach

Spiro Zavos — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:55:32 +0000

They say about coaches in any sport that they come in two categories: those about to be sacked and those who will be sacked later on. Graham Henry, the All Blacks coach who broke the ‘choking barrier’ with his side in RWC 2011, has defied the odds. He has effectively retired from coaching at the [...]

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Michael Clarke shouldn’t be a Test selector

Spiro Zavos — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:40:07 +0000

The rights and wrongs of Simon Katich’s comments about his chances of wearing the baggy green cap again with Michael Clarke as a selector can be debated endlessly. The main point though is that Clarke, as captain of the Australian Test side, should not be a selector, too. It is immaterial whether Clarke has never [...]

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