Golden Soft Sombrero Moment with Stefan Kamasz

Four Diegos’ Profile:              

Former General Manager of the Australian National Soccer League and CEO of Sydney FC

Diegos’ Verdict:                     

Nice bloke who had the worst two jobs in world sport. Hope he has recovered and is living a healthy life.

Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Stefan Kamasz

Kamasz on the NSL…

Diegos: “The doomsayers are saying the NSL is a basket case and that clubs are about to fall over due to financial pressures.

The view has been that the league is in desperate need of reform yet Northern Spirit and Perth Glory are pulling big crowds.

Where do you think the league is at presently?”

Kamasz: “There’s no doubt that the people who are making those statements are wrong.

This season we had almost 1.2 million people turn up for the regular season games. That’s never happened before. People might say that’s because of Northern Spirit and Perth Glory but the fact is that Soccer Australia has made a decision to bring those teams in for that very reason.

So what we are seeing at the moment is that the men are being sorted out from the boys because the marketplace is becoming more and more difficult and those teams that aren’t able to remain viable are going to found wanting.”

Kamasz on Traditional V New Money…

Diegos: “Can the traditional NSL club ever realistically appeal to a broader market or are they doomed?”

Kamasz: “No I would regard a club like South Melbourne, one traditional clubs, as being one that can build on what they have.

They have increased crowds this season and the club is going from strength to strength. With what is happening in the commercial end I think South Melbourne will be one of the strongest teams in this league in the future.

They have no plans to privatize and I can’t see that happening so it is possible for the traditional clubs to compete with the new money that’s coming into the competition but I think you’ll find more and more that the private capital will be the way in which this league goes.”

Soft Sombrero Moment May 1999

Kamasz on the Aussie media reporting…

Diegos: “The media’s reporting of the game in this country does seem a bit dodgy at times.

They have recently painted a couple of English cricket ‘Barmy Army’ members making a bit of noise at Wollongong and a brace of Sydney Olympic fans haggling over the price of souvlaki at Belmore oval as full scale soccer riots.

This reporting has tainted Aussie soccer yet again and Soccer Australia came out pretty strongly about how both those incidents were portrayed.

What was the eventual outcome of that?”

Kamasz: “The eventual outcome is that soccer suffered for no reason at all.

It’s very difficult for us to get some satisfaction out of the media who have written up these stories. We spent time with the management of one of the newspapers in question and really didn’t get any satisfaction out of it.

I get sick and tired of these minor incidents getting blown up and made out to be a major catastrophe. When you compare our history in recent years to the history of ‘violence’ in other sports we rank way down the list.

We are well aware what happens in AFL, Rugby League and at the cricket and it totally unfair but unfortunately most of the media look at what’s happened in years gone by in Europe and they think they can jump on the bandwagon.

I believe that going to an NSL game is safer than going to a one day cricket match.”

Soft Sombrero Moment May 1999