Golden Soft Sombrero Moment with Remo Nogarotto

Four Diegos Profile:               

Former owner of the Northern Spirit Football Club, advisor to NSL club, Newcastle United and Chairman of the NSL Commission.

Four Diegos verdict:              

The only guy in Aussie soccer administration who the Diegos reckon looks like Steven Segal (just imagine the hair slicked back, a few less kilos, a chick on both arms and a couple of Elvis Presley martial arts moves…).

Remo is an enthusiastic, straight-talking customer who was a prime mover in igniting the Northern Spirit phenomena in 1998.

Not unlike Hayden Foxe however, ‘Nogga’ has been prone to making some ‘howlers’ in the wrong areas of the pitch…Mark Goldberg, Nicola Berti and the North Sydney oval cricket pitch to name a few.

Don’t worry about it Remo. The Diegos say ‘what’s a couple of million dollar mistakes between friends?’

Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Remo Nogarotto

Nogarotto on the NSL commission chairmanship…

Diegos: "The NSL launch up in Sydney during the week was held at, of all places, Luna Park. The Dodgem cars reportedly took a caning as did the Ghost train and the Mighty Mouse.  As the chairman of the new NSL commission you must be feeling like one of those metal ducks at the slug gun gallery.

How tough is the job ahead to give credibility to our NSL?"

Nogarotto: "Well I sometimes feel like the bloke who landed the ugly sister. Ian Knop gets the good-looking sister in the Socceroos and I get the ugly one in the NSL. My view is though if we ship her around to the beautician quickly enough she might turn out to be something decent.

It's definitely going to be a big job but we've all known that in the last decade the NSL has been pretty crook and things won't be able to be fixed overnight. There's a need to put into place a decent three year plan and make sure that plan is not diluted by politics which has been the norm over the last few years.'

Soft Sombrero Moment September 2001

Nogarotto rethinking NSL travel arrangements…

Diegos: "Remo is there any plan to provide team buses that don't break down to NSL clubs as part of this new three year plan?'

Nogarotto: "Well we did have a less than auspice start in round one when the Marconi bus broke down and the Knights arrived late to Newcastle. Yep you Diegos may well be right. We might have to find a new form of transport for the NSL. Let me work on it.'

Soft Sombrero Moment September 2001

Nogarotto on KPI’s…don’t worry the Diegos don’t know what they mean either…

Diegos: "Let's talk about the plan. What is our short term Key Performance Indicators? In other words, what are we going to do?'

Nogarotto: "Gees KPI's. I tell you what, if you run around with those sort of acronyms in Australian soccer you'll get yourself into trouble.' 

Diegos: "We thought we'd get ourselves a job actually…

Nogarotto: "Well maybe so. As I have said publicly before its really about putting down some foundation stones. For the last ten years or so we've been trying to build the game on quicksand.

What we should be doing this year is to firstly put the foundation stones down financially so we can pay our way and secondly, start to put into place a business plan and an architecture moving forward that not everyone is going to agree with but at least we can agree that its the architecture necessary for the greater good.

There might be some losers in that architecture but unless we embrace it we're not going to go anywhere."

Diegos: "So money in the coffers is a priority. How are we going to put money in the coffers?'

Nogarotto: 'Well that's the single biggest challenge confronting the game. We can all wax lyrical as much as we like about the game but at the end of the day if you don't have the 'moola' you go nowhere.

The contracts we've got in place for soccer in this country are nowhere near other codes. For example, if we take the TV contract we have in place at the moment it would take us fifty years to make what the AFL earns in one year and that's not good enough.'

Soft Sombrero Moment September 2001

Nogarotto on the NSL commission…

Diegos: "The NSL commission is a new concept that's designed to give clubs more say in the running of the league and ultimately their own futures.

What have the meetings of the clubs been like thus far? Any food fights? Hogging of the cucumber and salad sandwiches? Poker games?

Nogarotto: "I hate to disappoint you Diegos, it's actually been a pretty tame affair. There have been no party pies thrown around the room yet.

The main point of difference between the commission and the way the NSL has been administered in the past has been that we've done away with one layer of what I thought was unnecessary management and that was the executive which encouraged a culture of a nod and a wink and look after your mates.

It's probably a little more cumbersome with all the clubs around the table now but at least it gives the opportunity for the clubs to feel like they are part of the process.'

Soft Sombrero Moment September 2001

Nogarotto on our TV partners…

Diegos: "In a strange twist, when our domestic league is probably at its lowest ebb, it looks as though soccer's partner in love and videotape - Channel 7 will be awash with the game on TV this season.

Soon we'll be complaining that they'll be too much 'kick and giggle' on the box.

This must be a real fillip for the clubs?

Nogarotto: "Definitely yes and not without time. In fairness to Channel Seven, programmers haven't been tripping over themselves to put on the box the sort of product that we've had in the past.

It really is incumbent on us as administrators to make sure the product scrubs up all right so that they as programmers have a compelling reason to put it on TV.

The decisions made by Channel Seven this year in a programming sense I think are a huge step forward for the game at a domestic level. We'd like to think that those programming decisions made this year will be bolstered next year.'

Soft Sombrero Moment September 2001

Nogarotto, Nicola Berti and Newcastle United…

Diegos: "When wearing your other ten gallon hat, you're heavily involved as a powerbroker at Newcastle United.

After the Northern Spirit experience what made you get involved with an NSL club football again and can you confirm that Nicola Berti is standing on your doorstep as we speak, boots and jockstrap in hand looking for a game?

Nogarotto: "Let's just put that one to bed quickly. The answer is no to Nicola! On the Northern Spirit, it was a wonderful experience however. The problems were obviously that we had a shareholder in the UK who went belly up in the first year of the project.

As a result I had to sell my controlling interest to Glasgow Rangers and they've gone off and done it their way. I felt it was only right that I move away once they took control. It was a difficult decision for me to make at the time. I have a strong view that regional clubs like the Perth Glory and Newcastle are the clubs that we need, at least in the short term, to build the creditability of the game around the country.

One team towns are much easier to promote, market and capitalize in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne where you have more than one club.'

Soft Sombrero Moment September 2001

Nogarotto on Cantona…

Diegos: “There is a story doing the rounds at present claiming that the Northern Spirit are attempting to coax Eric Cantona out of self imposed retirement, away from his cafe latte, martial arts lessons and acting lessons, to play a number of guest games for your club next season.

If this is true, what is your strategy to get him to Australia considering that l don’t think he needs the money?”

Nogarotto: “Before l answer the question, I’ve got to tell you that l have already received a call from a journo in London asking about when Cantona was arriving in Australia. Apparently the story had made the sporting pages of some obscure tabloid and was becoming big news.

The key to getting Cantona is not simply to kick a football. Obviously we’d like him to kick a football around for a few games because l think you’d have to lock the doors at North Sydney oval if you did. The key is we believe, a concept that we have come up with that involves lending his name to some of those indulgences he seems to have a passion for like painting, poetry, art etc.”

Diegos: “Well the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House need a good paint”

Nogarotto: “Hey you’ve got a point there!”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998