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Wellington Phoenix FC

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Wellington Phoenix FC
File:Wellingtonphoenix.png
Full nameWellington Phoenix Football Club
Nickname(s)Phoenix, The Nix
Founded2007
GroundWestpac Stadium, Wellington
Capacity34,500
ChairmanTerry Serepisos
ManagerRicki Herbert
LeagueA-League
2007-088th (league)

Wellington Phoenix is an Australian[1] association football (soccer) team based in Wellington, New Zealand, competing in the Australian A-League. The club replaced the now-defunct New Zealand Knights FC in the 2007-08 season.

History

During the later stages of the 2006-07 season, the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) removed the New Zealand Knights's (NZK) A-League licence due to club's financial and administrative problems and poor on-field performance. After the resignation of the NZK board, FFA transferred the licence to New Zealand Soccer (NZS; now New Zealand Football), which administered the club for the rest of the season before its subsequent dissolution.

FFA then provided NZS a provisional A-League licence to sub-let to a suitable New Zealand team to enter the A-League 2007-08 season. The FFA provided an application deadline to NZS, which was subsequently delayed to give more time for potential applicants in New Zealand to apply along with NZS support.

While NZS was given a chance to apply with a new sub-licencee, a Townsville-based consortium, Tropical Football Australia (TFA) also expressed interest and prepared an A-league application to replace the place previously held by the Knights.[2] However, TFA eventually pulled out with the understanding of the FFA's preference to retain a New Zealand team for the league. TFA later resubmitted its bid in the following year as a potential A-League expansion franchise under the name of "Northern Thunder FC", which was later changed to "North Queensland Thunder".[3]

After much delay, the final money amount needed for the final application came from Wellington property businessman Terry Serepisos in the last moments of the bid giving much the relief to the New Zealand football fans. Serepisos, the club's majority owner and chairman, provided NZD $1,000,000[citation needed] to ensure the beginnings of a new New Zealand franchise and a continuation of New Zealand's participation in the A-League. FFA finalised a three-year A-League licence to New Zealand Football who then sub-let the licence to the Wellington-based franchise.[4] The Wellington franchise was confirmed on March 19, 2007.

The name for the new club was picked from a shortlist of six, pruned from 250 names suggested by the public, and was announced on March 28 2007.[5][6] Serepisos said of the name: "It symbolises the fresh start, the rising from the ashes, and the incredible Wellington support that has come out".[7]

In November 2007, Sony NZ Ltd came on board as the team's principal sponsor.

Colours, badge and kit

The club's colours and badge were revealed on March 29, 2007. The colours are black and yellow, the traditional colours of the city of Wellington, while the badge is a shield with a phoenix rising above the shield.

While the general consensus among fans was for a kit featuring yellow and black vertical stripes, this format did not comply with the A-league template required by Reebok. Instead, Wellington wears a predominantly black strip with yellow and white trim.

The away strip was revealed with the home kit. The away kit features black sleeves with yellow trim on a white background, while the shorts are white with a yellow and black side trim, with white socks.[8]

The Wellington Phoenix FC logo was created by Angus Deacon, a designer at TBD Ltd. TBD Ltd is owned by John Serepisos - a cousin to club owner Terry Serepisos.

The team's sponsors are:

Stadium

Westpac Stadium

Wellington Phoenix play all home matches at the Westpac Stadium (referred to as the 'Ring of Fire' by fans) which has a capacity of 35,000 plus 1,000 corporate seatings approximately 40,000 with temporary seating. Field dimensions: Length (North to South) 235 metres, Width (West to East) 185 metres. The $130 million NZD stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction and is situated close to major transport facilities (such as Wellington Railway Station) one kilometre north of the CBD. The stadium is owned and operated by Wellington Regional Stadium Trust. It is located on the waterfront, built on reclaimed railway land, which was surplus to requirements.

Supporters

A Wellington Phoenix supporters club, calling themselves the "Yellow Fever", was founded a day after Wellington's winning bid for the A-League slot was announced.[9] Yellow Fever founder Mike Greene met with the founder of NZ cricket supporter group the Beige Brigade to get ideas of how to get the group started.[10] The name was originally chosen on the assumption that the new Wellington-based team would play in a yellow playing strip (yellow being the dominant sporting colour of the region). When the dominant colour was revealed as black, Yellow Fever elected to retain the name. As such, many Yellow Fever members wear yellow to fixtures as opposed to black, such as the popular "Retro Ricki" t-shirt.

A Phoenix fan in Algeria

The "Fever Zone" occupied by Yellow Fever members are the rows between aisles 21 and 22, and 'store themselves' at YellowFever.co.nz. The site, at 5th November 2008, had 4850 registered users. Although Westpac Stadium is an all-seater facility, most Yellow Fever members choose to stand in front of their seat - similar to terrace seating traditions in British football.

Yellow Fever are creating many traditions of their own, the most notable being taking your shirt off if the Phoenix are winning with 10 minutes to go. Many Yellow Fever members have also lent their support to other football fixtures in Wellington and New Zealand, mostly notably the NZFC's Team Wellington and the New Zealand national football team (known as the "All Whites"), for whom they temporarily rebrand themselves as "White Noise". They also lent their support to the New Zealand women's national under-17 football team during the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, held in New Zealand.

Seasons

2007-08

Crowd at first game of the season
Main article: Wellington Phoenix season 2007-08

Of the 21 rounds, Wellington Phoenix will play 10 home games.

In their first match of their A-League campaign they drew 2-2 against Melbourne Victory. Scoring two late goals in the last 7 minutes from Brazilian import Daniel and Shane Smeltz. A crowd of 14,421 was produced which set a record, at that time, for the highest attended club football (soccer) match in New Zealand.

Wellington's first A-League win was a 2-1 defeat of Sydney FC at Sydney Football Stadium on September 14 2007. Their first home win was their 4-1 defeat of Template:ALeague PG on September 30 2007.

On December 1 2007, Wellington Phoenix played a friendly match against United States MLS club Los Angeles Galaxy.[11][12] In the contract to secure the friendly, David Beckham had to play a minimum of 55 minutes on the pitch. Wellington was beaten by a 1-4 scoreline. David Beckham played the entire match and scored from the penalty spot in the second half. The attendance of 31,853 was a record for any football match in New Zealand.[13] David Beckham played the full 90 minutes with a broken rib which he sustained in a tackle in the previous match. [14]

The previous evening, November 30 2007, 18,345 had attended the A-League match against Template:ALeague AU. This is the largest crowd to watch a competitive club football match in New Zealand.

Wellington officially ended its 2007-08 finals chances when it lost 2-0 to Sydney FC on January 4 2008.

On the last day of the regular season, the Phoenix had lost a 2-0 away match to the Central Coast Mariners leaving them with 20 points along with Perth Glory. However, due to a poorer goal difference, they ended up being last of the eight A-league teams with the wooden spoon.

2008-09

Main article: Wellington Phoenix season 2008-09

After their first full pre-season and extensive recruiting, Wellington started the season in positive fashion reaching the final of the pre-season cup. However after dominating a 0-0 draw against Melbourne Victory, the Phoenix lost on penalties 8-7.

Current Squad

Players in bold have senior international caps.

Name and position No Joined in Former team Birth date Citizenship
Goalkeepers
Mark Paston 1 2007 New Zealand Knights New Zealand 13 December 1976 New Zealand
Glen Moss 20 2007 Dinamo Bucharest 19 January 1983 New Zealand
Defenders
Tony Lochhead 3 2007 New England Revolution 12 January 1982 New Zealand
Jonathan McKain 4 2008 FC Timişoara 21 September 1982 Australian
Dave Mulligan 16 2008 Port Vale 24 March 1982 New Zealand
Ben Sigmund 18 2008 Auckland City New Zealand 3 February 1981 New Zealand
Andrew Durante captain 22 2008 Newcastle Jets 13 November 1982 Australian
Manny Muscat 25 2008 Green Gully Cavaliers 7 December 1984 Australian
Midfielders
Tim Brown 6 2007 Newcastle Jets 6 March 1981 New Zealand
Leo Bertos 7 2008 Perth Glory 20 December 1981 New Zealand
Jeremy Christie 2 2007 Perth Glory 22 May 1983 New Zealand
Karl Dodd 5 2007 Falkirk 22 August 1980 Australian
Michael Ferrante 10 2007 Melbourne Victory 29 April 1981 Australian
Daniel Cortês 11 2007 Madureira 12 December 1979 Brazilian
Richard Johnson 12 2007 Newcastle Jets 27 April 1974 Australian
Adam Kwasnik 15 2008 Central Coast Mariners 31 May 1983 Australia
Vince Lia 17 2007 Melbourne Victory 18 March 1985 Australian
Leilei Gao 21 2008 MyPa 15 june 1980 Chinese
Forwards
Vaughan Coveny 8 2007 Newcastle Jets 13 December 1971 New Zealand
Shane Smeltz 9 2007 Halifax Town 29 September 1981 New Zealand
Troy Hearfield (Youth) 13 2008 Newcastle Jets 31 October 1987 Australian
Greg Draper (Youth) 19 2007 Canterbury United New Zealand 13 August 1989 New Zealand
Costa Barbarouses (Youth) 23 2007 Team Wellington New Zealand 19 February 1990 New Zealand

Short-Term Signings

Name and position No Position Former Team Birth date Citizenship
Phil Imray 30 GK Team Wellington New Zealand 22 February 1984 England
Jacob Spoonley 30 GK Auckland City FC New Zealand 3 March 1987 New Zealand
Helbert "Fred" da Silva 14 MF DC United United States 18 August 1979 Brazil

However, Phoenix striker Shane Smeltz has confirmed he will leave the club at the end of the season to play for expansion club Gold Coast United.[15] Glen Moss has also confirmed he will leave the club at the conclusion of the current season to play for Melbourne Victory FC.

Records

Top scorers

Name Goals Games Average Years
1 New Zealand Shane Smeltz 16 29 0.55 2007-
2 Brazil Daniel 4 25 0.16 2007-
3 Brazil Felipe 3 12 0.25 2007-08
4 Australia Ross Aloisi 2 13 0.15 2007-08
5 Australia Ahmad Elrich 1 16 0.06 2007-08
= New Zealand Steven Old 1 12 0.08 2007-08
= New Zealand Vaughan Coveny 1 26 0.04 2007-
= New Zealand Tony Lochhead 1 28 0.04 2007-
= Australia Vince Lia 1 13 0.08 2007-
= Australia Michael Ferrante 1 26 0.04 2007-
= Australia Kristian Rees 1 9 0.11 2007-08
= Australia Karl Dodd 1 27 0.04 2007-
= Australia Leo Bertos 1 6 0.16 2008-
= Australia Tim Brown 1 18 0.05 2007-

As of: 8 November 2008

Home attendance

Season 1

Season 2

References

  1. ^ Micallef, Phillip: FFA Caught off-side over Kiwis, The World Game, 18 Nov 2008.
  2. ^ Shock! A-League decision delayed, TVNZ, 14 March 2007.
  3. ^ Fink, Jesse: Kiwis alive as Townsville pulls pin, Fox Sports (Australia), 28 March 2007.
  4. ^ "Century City Developments and Century City Football". Century City Developments. March 19, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ NZ franchise for A-League.
  6. ^ "NZ Phoenix to rise in A League". News.com.au. 2007-03-28. Retrieved 2007-03-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Wellington Phoenix rises from the ashes, Fox Sports (Australia), 28 March 2007.
  8. ^ AWAY KIT REVEALED | Yellow Fever - Supporters of Wellington Phoenix FC
  9. ^ Munro, Kylie: Yellow fever hits soccer, The Aucklander, 7 May 2007.
  10. ^ Woodcock, Fred: Wellington football fans at fever-pitch, The Dominion Post, 22 March 2007.
  11. ^ "Phoenix to take on Galaxy of stars". September 18, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Saturday night game for Beckham". September 24, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Beckham puts on winning show in Welly". December 2, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Beckham played with broken rib". December 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "Smeltz signs with Gold Coast". 04 November 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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