Aucklanders prove Cantona right

Wives, churches, and political parties all left with reasons to be fearful in The Land of the Long White Cloud.

Prior to last Saturday, Auckland FC had never played a competitive football match.

Prior to last Saturday, The Football Kingz and The New Zealand Knights represented two high profile, failed attempts at finding a home for professional football in New Zealand’s largest city.

Having seen Auckland FC launched as a passion-project of American billionaire, Bill Foley — owner of AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League, as well as the Vegas Golden Knights Ice Hockey team — a section of locals, calling themselves Tamāki AFC, decided to use the opening fixture to protest capitalism and the owner’s support for Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

Quite what the half-strength flat white sipping Aucklanders know of American politics is unclear, but it will have undoubtedly come as a surprise to the new owner that he and the club would be welcomed to the city in such a way.

Eric Cantona once famously said, "You can change your wife, your politics, your religion. But never, never can you change your favourite football team.”

With Aucklanders refusing to budge from supporting a team they don’t even yet support, wives, churches, and political parties are all said to be keeping a close eye on how the latest A-League upstarts’ season progresses.