Andy Martin - All you expect and less

This is him...

http://www.isportconnect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12911&Itemid=378

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andy-martin/11/b3b/49

So no football or New Zealand experience?

could be a good thing?

#nojobsfortheboys?

Maybe. But when his key task as CEO of a rugby club was leading the successful buy out by a consortium of Irish businessmen, I have to question his background. I can’t see any relevant of that for the NZF CEO job.

At first glance I’m pretty sceptical of a CEO with, what appears to be, very little sporting governance background, and no knowledge of footy in NZ.  I find it hard to believe there isn’t someone out there with mid-tier management experience and some knowledge of football in NZ.

There are plenty of people within NZF with 'football' experience. Looks like they've looked for and found someone with a clear financial/business background and that should be of benefit to the organisation. It will come down to how good he is rather than what his background id i think.

It's good to have someone who is unconnected with the politics of the organisation - positive move.

business accumen first and foremost - that's his job - make NZF financially smarter, leave the footballing stuff to the other parts of the business - Hey Gareth should be paying attention to this.

On the face of it he seems an OK choice. He certainly appears to be a "money guy". Which for NZF is very very important as they always seem to struggle balancing income/expenditure. So he gets a big tick....MBA, long international banking experiance. On the sporting front 4 years at London Irish would mean he has experiance with sport at a professional level. The other positive is he is an outsider. So he will come into NZ with a "clean slate".....no experiance of local politics etc.

The CEO needs to be a bit of a visionary as well. The game here is not stagnating but it is not at a level where it could be.....especially internationally. I hope this guy is not just a boring banker who will just get the books to balance. There is a huge groundswell of interest in football in NZ. The womans game is going great and we have a huge pool of youngsters playing the game. But the AW"s are going nowhere. It will be interested to see what this guy thinks about the future direction of NZ football....especially the question of more involvement with Asia. He will have to quickly get up to speed with the geopolitical situation facing NZ football. There is a big big difference to running a metropolitan sports club in London to managing a country situated in a physically widespread, broken arse Confederation like Oceania

I don't mind this at all. Above all a clean break was needed from our infighting soccer community. This is as clean as it gets. The fact he does not know anything about NZ soccer wil probably help.

He's in for one hell of a ride!

Just looking on the net at info about London Irish - they play their home matches at Reading FC's ground, the Madjeski Stadium and attract crowds of up to 24,000 - so Martin had a working relationship with Reading FC.

London Irish fans seem pretty happy with the guy for moving the club forward on to a sounder financial footing, building an ambitious new club base and training facility at Hazelwood on the outskirts of London etc.

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/boards/search/s97.htm?99,search=Andy+Martin,page=1,match_type=ALL,match_dates=0,match_forum=THISONE

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/main/s97/p25.php?cx=014967606690113664965%3Acc4v70es1gk&cof=FORID%3A11&q=andy+martin&sa=SN+Search&siteurl=www.rugbynetwork.net%2Fboards%2Flist%2Fs97.htm&ref=www.londonirish.org%2F&ss=4150j2097334j11

Plenty of praise lavished on supporters' threads like this:

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/boards/read/s97.htm?99,14490730,14490894#msg-14490894

Re: Let's offer a Thank You ...

Posted by: thepedro (IP Logged)

Date: 12 December, 2013 18:15

Well said Bill! Thanks to all worked so hard in difficult circumstances to get us this far. The future looks bright not only because of the new investors but because of what they are inheriting. Getting Hazlewood through is a legacy that Andy and the previous board can all be proud of. 

Diehard London Irish fans have just discovered their CEO has come to NZ Football (i.e. changed codes to "the dark side" in their terms): 

On their supporters' website new thread just up:

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/boards/read/s97.htm?99,14502767,14502767#msg-14502767

"Andy Martin NZ Poofball"

Posted by: Jolly Green Giant (IP Logged)

Date: 19 December, 2013 13:42

[www.nzherald.co.nz]

"Spike Milligan - like a startled deer on the wing for London Irish":

Interesting fact: Spike Milligan played for London Irish in his youth. Recently departed actor Peter O'Toole was a fan and would attend matches, often with Richard Harris. TV personality Terry Wogan also a fan:

http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=IVuc4SkJ1FsC&pg=PT79&lpg=PT79&dq=peter+o'toole+london+irish+rugby+club&source=bl&ots=g4pqFL-sZs&sig=TTi1Qsa2ADBHkbpP7E77cvGzBJs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6P2yUon5N8a2kgWAhoGwDQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=peter%20o'toole%20london%20irish%20rugby%20club&f=false

http://www.london-irish.co.uk/oldboys.php?fn=byletter&letter=M

Milligan, Spike
Current Club : retired
Details for Spike Milligan :
Spike played for the London Irish B side before the war and was invited to play for the 1st XV, but then war broke out. He died in February 2002.
Last played for Irish : 
Other Clubs : not known"Rugby career: After school I played on the wing for South East London Poly and then, during the War, with D Battery of the 56th Heavy Regiment, which was full of mad, hard-drinking Welshmen. I loved every moment. After hostilities ceased I retired until last year when, aged 80, I turned out for my home club, Rye RFC, to help raise some cash. The opposition let me score a try and The Daily Telegraph took a photo for posterity. Oh, I once drunkenly crash-tackled All Black captain Ian Kirkpatrick in a Dublin hotel bar. I was concussed for months but he just carried on drinking his Guinness."

“Rugby is a game for big buggers; if you're not a big bugger, you get hurt. I wasn't a big bugger but I was a fast bugger and therefore I avoided the big buggers,” Spike Milligan, member of the pre-war London Irish 'B' team."

Good lad. Spike mentions in his war memoirs being twitted by his English fellow-soldiers about his preferred football code: "It's a game for bleedin' toffs, Spike, and that ball, like a bleedin' duck's egg, no wonder you have to carry it."

Anyway, interview with Andy Martin.

When does Andy Martin take over the reins at NZF?

Feb

I hope his first question is....."we are playing Japan next month and we don't appear to have a coach"  LOL

 

"We're fookin' playing fookin' Japan next month and we don't have a fookin' coach bejezus! Frank! Fred!..."

Hopefully before he even considers hiring a new coach, he will purchase a fax machine!

Does the UK press know something we don't?

So will he be at Eden Park on Saturday? And if so, will it be announced? He's the new CEO of NZF after all.

things are so quiet at head office

it really does seem like they are all taking a breather

and polishing the CVs

this guy had better be good because we have been shit for far too long

Anyone seen him? Heard anything? Spoken to him? Does he actually exist?

Starts Monday

Welcome to NZF, your new chairman is...

With respect mate, your attitude is a disgrace. Everyone knows he has to cure the blind and heal the lame first goddam it. It's attitudes like that that expect the world changed first before the blind and lame that has NZF in the situation. Go home and reconsider your life :o)

Are the blind lame and " special " ,not top of NZFs hiring list as is .....?

You could well be right there sir

I'm sure he'll do all of that.  Right after he works out how to use the fax machine.

Technology is our friend !!

CTRL+ALT+DEL is my friend

Has this guy started his job yet @ NZF??.

10th Feb. Hello Andy. Are you there?

I'll say this for him, his business/ banking background is impressive. I didn't realise he had such prominent positions over eleven years. Certainly the most qualified we've ever had in terms of business experience. His Linkedin profile:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=41636217&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=1Pdi&locale=en_US&srchid=2459754921392893635690&srchindex=6&srchtotal=33&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A2459754921392893635690%2CVSRPtargetId%3A41636217%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary

Andy Martin

Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Football

Board Member & Managing Director, Barclays Commercial BankJune 2006 – September 2009 (3 years 4 months)

Member of Executive board 
MD - Global sales business to FI, NBFI and Multinational corporate client base

UK Commercial Director, Barclays Commercial Bank
January 2005 – June 2006 (1 year 6 months)

Leadership of a large corporate banking team focussed on the UK Manufacturing industry

Regional Managing Director   
Barclays Bank September 2001 – January 2005 (3 years 5 months)Midlands

Leadership of Barclays Commercial Bank across the Midlands Region

Insurance Banking Director 
Barclays Bank
June 2000 – September 2001 (1 year 4 months)

Leadership of a global corporate sales team focussed on the International Insurance industry

Head of Organisation & DevelopmentBarclays BankJuly 1998 – June 2000 (2 years)

Leadership of talent development programme to deliver leaders aligned to business strategy

Have any clubs had a Hi I'm your new.......... Yet - In any format.

I'm sure he will have been watching the women's U 20 World Cup qualification, have had a quiet cuppa with Gareth and be advising Fred on processes for selecting u17 boys coach ; and looking for wotif deals in Japan. See. He's a busy man.

.... or, he's cleared his desk and he's on his way to the airport....

That actually had me rolling in laughter. Well played.

 

You could almost picture it

9am staff meeting

11am resignation letter.

I appreciate that he needs to get his feet under the table but you would expect he may have had an interview or two by now (even if it means someone from NZ football proactively ringing some journalists, tv or radio guys or even heaven forbid the podcast) and asking do you want to have a chat to our new main man? One of the core functions of his role is to get the sport into the media. It isn't exactly a promising start. Pick up your game NZ football and pick up the phone.