The Fall and Fall of New Zealand All Whites Football team.

New rankings as at 8/4/2016 at end of this article.

I have tweeted recently about the worrying drop in the rankings of the national team.  And alongside this demise is the mismanagement of that national team,  more especially Cattle Class Gate.  New Zealand football, as I see it, is in a very dire state and bound to not get better in the immediate future.'

But why is NZ Football in that state?  The 2010 FIFA WC should have delivered to NZF financial recompense to help the association prosper.  There should have been a lot more friendlies over the past five years to help keep the team competitive and to keep a solid player base going forward.  But it didn't do anything positive it appears.  There have been 5 friendlies in the past 2 years, and all against lower ranked Asian teams. That is not going to promote the team back up the rankings .

This guy would have been in the AW when the team ranked 47 over ten years ago.  But it's not players that is the issue, if you don't have games you don't need players or foster talent.  All one has to do is look at Hockey, Rowing, Yachting and Equestrian to see how national sporting organisations use the limited finances they have.  So the question goes to NZF and their money allocations.  Has the resurgence of Club Football come at the expense of International games?


Let's just recap the reason behind this blog.  5 months ago NZF AW were ranked 125.  Yesterday they were ranked 159.  That's not a very good turn of events. Samoa (164), American Samoa (165) and Cook Islands (169) are now in a position to pass our venerated international outfit.  The bonus for us in Oceania is our perennial rivals, New Caledonia have dropped below the other three mentioned above.

I shudder to think if we'll ever see these scenes on the world stage again??

Editted to add (8/4/2016)

If you go to this link you'll see the dismal demise of the Oceania football. 3 months ago all nations were on average 5 points higher.  Does this fall reflect a lack of interest, lack of money, or lack support from FIFA?  I think all three factor in.  With the current FIFA issues on a political front, all FIFA football initiatives and support to struggling federations are on hold, and especially the likes of Oceania, too hard basket.

I think after FIFAWC2010 we were around 40 in the world.  Now we languish on a downward slide at 163.  Can NZ Football address the issues?