All Whites - Road to FIFA WC 2018.

Now the All Whites have booked their trip to South America it is timely now to see who they could face.  Currently four teams are in contention for the play off match versus our boys, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.

Oct 5th sees the match that will probably decide that team to face us (home and away), Peru versus Argentina but no surprises if it's any other of the teams above.  The All Whites have a Westpac Stadium match in November with the return leg yet to be confirmed.

It's a bit hard actually picking that team such is the openness of the South American competition. But we can't also rest on our laurels, any South American team is dangerous on it's day.

Trying to rationalise the existence of NZ Football and Oceania

After a longish time away from FIFA sanctioned football, we see our A Team (aka All Whites) competing (away) in international games at that. This tournament features key players in the OFC and given past tournaments, maybe not so easy to win.

It seems it's been some time since All Whites won anything of note, and their run in the 2010 FIFA World Cup is now well and truly a distant memory.  Sadly the rankings have slipped markedly along with that lack of foreign competition, especially on the home front. So what happened to the millions (in US $$) made from being the only unbeaten team in that WC?

To be honest it's not that hard to find.  A revamped Senior Mens Domestic competition.  Womens International programme, and youth tournaments.  A majority of those (excepting Domestic) have had a lot of international competition. At the expense of Mens All White campaign!  Yes our womens and youth partake in great competitions, but the shop window for our Football is the All Whites.  And the All Whites are not being catered for, contrary to the football available to both WC campaigns in the past.

One great thing to foster better calibre football is a football Chappell/Hadlee series, 3 matches home and away with Australia.  If that is possible, then you might just draw other international sides (Asia) down here with regular internationals.  We'd still be under OFC.  Yes talk is about NZF joining Asia but I doubt FIFA will let us go, citing competition amongst the islands and our ability to raise the quality of football, especially given our ranking now a mere 10 points clear of the nearest OFC country (a very weak position to barter from).

I like us in OFC, I don't like us not being seen on home pitches.  If they miss the boat now (NZ Football) then the future is a shipwreck that can never again be refloated.

Who be falling on their Sword - NZ Football

Sadly I was right. Fall and Fall of NZ Football.  Last November out of pure chance, I checked the current standing of the National Team which resulted in that blog.  Nothing happened.  Then late December All Whites Coach Anthony Hudson made it very public how he felt about the state of NZ Football.  NZFootball's Andy Martin followed soon after with his thoughts, suggesting things are ok.

So things continue, seemingly all good.  Then mid January the Wellington Phoenix announce with glee the transfer from Birmingham City to Nix of striker Alex Jones.  AWESOME!!  So everyone is cockahoop and folks go and do what they have to do, supposedly.  But like all things coated in gold chocolate, the shit hit the fan!!

What appears to be huge misfortune, with neither The Nix or NZF apportioning blame or taking responsibility, Alex Jones misses out on a juicy contract and the organisations that are The Nix and NZF are not only walking around trying to find fault, but also are looked at longingly by the sporting public with a state of conjecture and ridicule.

Taking you back to Anthony Hudson's outburst post Christmas.  One of his strongest comments and a sign that deep down NZF is an amateurish shemozzle.  In his words:

In the second year of a contract which takes him through until the end of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Hudson is frustrated with what he perceives as a poor culture within New Zealand football circles and the fact the All Whites only played three games in 2015. 

And his summation is this, the Holiday culture evident in New Zealand football in coaching and administration is disturbing.  But also aligned with that was the lack of football (ironically the name of the sport) on the international stage and one not getting better (zero matches in the friendly window this year, apportioned to lack of funding to get teams here).  Maybe if all NZF teams went cattle class there'd be some funds.

I have a good question.  If NZF are crying foul regarding funding visiting teams for tournaments and for the top teams away, why are they crying poverty?  I'm hoping there isn't an undercurrent of financial mismanagement and a possible crisis in the process.  And from memory the White Ferns and age group teams have had quite a few journeys overseas so is the funding being put in the right place.

But that's  by the by.  For now CEO NZ Football needs to stand up to scrutiny, not some back room administrator.  And the Nix either need an apology or need to revise the way they do business.  My bet is it's a NZ Football issue as both Anthony Hudson and Ernie Merrick have had similar issues going back.

And Alex, please don't let this leave a sad taste in your mouth and come back again one day.'

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?

Why Oceania/Pacifica gets snubbed.

It's an unrivaled area in the world.  Spread across thousands of square miles of ocean and clustered in small groups of islands or just a plain individual islands, Oceania (if referring to Football) or The Pacific Islands have historically been hard to get to, have small populations, and have very little in the way of vibrant rich economies.  They are small in every aspect of the world.  But in the larger scale of the world as a place, they are tiny, and economically very very poor.  The largest country in this group is New Zealand with a population of just 4.5 million.

So what of these countries in the global village?  Let's first look at Football.  In many of these small countries, football is the main sport and played regularly between countries in this group.  They're not the best teams in the world, and often could be said, globally, probably the worst.  That's not the fault of those countries, when you have a very small population base to draw from, you'll have indicative results.  But like all sports, there is a passion, and passion in world football is a given.  So with that in mind, their efforts should be rewarded in some way  to improve their lot and make them have a goal to attain sporting notoriety.  But FIFA continually neglect this area of Oceania in not allowing automatic entry to World Cup, the only global federation with this honour.

But then you see that that makes sound sense.  There is no money coming from those islands to curry favour in FIFA's boardroom, except New Zealand, and then that amount of cash from that nation is a pittance in world football circles.  So it is fair then that FIFA take their stance?  FIFA's role in it's sport is to foster competitive football across the globe, through competitions, through regional development, and through financial support.  That it doesn't do this well in the Pacific is well recorded.

And yes, you have heard this somewhere else.  Another world sporting body has been doing this for years, but probably less publicly.  The International Rugby Board (IRB) have been making a lot of noises in the past about growing the game in the region, even hinting at pouring money into those countries that have a good rugby base (and a sport more popular in their country than football).  But with the IRB making ruminations and then not following through a lot of rugby players (and future players) have left their homelands (weakening their national teams) for the bigger dollars of rugby elsewhere, or switching codes to Rugby League.  Sure this avenue gives up and coming players a new right of passage for individual endeavour, but at the expense of national representation and kudos.

FIFA and IRB both see the Pacific Islands as nuisance factor it is fair to say and both continue to ignore the reason sport exists, the need to bring excellence to the paddock.  Sure they won't be world beaters, but small nation teams in the past have surprised and created lasting sporting memories.  If both organisations don't give hope then why should teams be formed and play under that code?