It has been a rather big week in the world of NZ Football. What else has happened around the Wellington Phoenix license saga?
New Zealand Football (NZF) lose Oly-Whites player ineligibility appeal
After a player eligibility scandal cost the New Zealand under-23 side (the Oly-Whites) a place at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics in Brazil, NZF appealed the decision. It has today been revealed the appeal was turned down.
The All Whites had been due to face Fiji in the final of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Papua New Guinea. Beaten semi-finalists Vanuatu complained that South African born NZ right-back Deklan Wynne was ineligible, as he did not meet article seven of FIFA’s regulations, which requires any player who was not born in the country they are trying to represent, or whose mother or father was not born there, to either live continuously for five years in the country, or to become a citizen before the age of 18. New Zealand were consequently barred from competing in the final; complainants Vanuatu took their place and promptly lost to Fiji to send the Pacific Islanders to the Olympics, with NZF left bewildered and arguing that Wynne qualified under article six, which states in one of its clauses that a player may represent a country other than that of their birth if they continuously live there for two years. NZF appealed the decision.
This week, NZF made public that the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) rejected their appeal on 23 October. The OFC also released a statement on their website, reading: “The OFC Appeals Committee has dismissed an appeal made by New Zealand Football Incorporated in regards to the OFC Disciplinary Committee decision dated 12 July 2015. After adjourning the meeting on 24 August the OFC Appeals Committee reconvened on the 21 and 22 September to consider New Zealand Football’s Petition of Appeal. New Zealand Football made an oral submission in support of the Petition of Appeal and following due consideration the committee found that the appeal failed.”
NZF can now either accept the OFC decision or move to take up the issue with sport’s highest ruling body, the Court of Arbitration of Sport, an institution that is independent of any sports organisation, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. NZF president Deryck Shaw made it clear that they would be taking their time with a decision and that finances would be seriously considered.
“Like any national sports organisation, we’ve got limited resources, we’ve got people quite stretched through this process, a lot of resource has gone into it, but to get to this point was really important for the game, but we do have to look at what is the best way forward,” Shaw said.
NZF have 21 days to make a decision.
NZ National League News
Men’s Youth League, Women’s League Leaders and Women’s player profile – Katie Rood
The New Zealand Women’s National League and the Youth ASB Premiership kicked off recently, with the full men’s national league due to start on the 8 November. These summer leagues comprise eight women’s teams and 12 young men’s teams of the finest talents the countries top winter clubs have to offer.
Northern Football and Mainland Pride top the table after two games in the ASB Women’s League, with prolific goalscorer and proven talent Katie Rood on top of the Golden Boot standings with four from her Northern table toppers’ opening two efforts.
The 23-year-old striker has been arguably the top performer in NZ women’s leagues for Nationwide since she first began winning titles with Auckland’s Glenfield Rovers in 2010. Since that first Northern Premier Women’s League title, Rood and her Glenfield teammates went on adding more silverware to their club collection, winning the domestic treble in the 2011 season (the National Women’s Knockout Cup, Northern Premier Women’s League, and the Northern Premier Women’s League Cup). Following a narrow second place finish in the 2012 league to constant rivals Claudelands Rovers and a runners-up finish in the Women’s Knockout Cup in 2013, Glenfield went back to back in the cup the next two seasons, winning the 2014 and 2015 knockout cup finals. As well as her women’s winter league exploits, Rood was part of the Northern Football representative side that won the ASB Women’s National League in the summers of 2011 and 2012. And, despite all her goals and titles over a glittering NZ career, she has only ever played for the U20 Women’s Football Ferns, and is yet to be called up for full national team duty.
With the Men’s Youth League only three games old, the clear frontrunner for the title this season is Southern United Youth, a team whose most recent result was an impressive 8-1 thrashing of the Wellington Phoenix Youth side. Southern are the only team to have not conceded a goal or lost a game so far this season, with seven of its 10 goals coming from the boot of Ben Kiore, and he sits three goals clear at the top in the race for Golden Boot.
NZ hire new technical director to replace Fred De Jong
After Fred De Jong’s resignation due to the Olympic eligibility scandal, UEFA Pro Licence holder Rob Sherman, 55, has been appointed after serving as technical director of the Welsh Football Association and as head of coach education with Football Federation Australia.
Sherman’s main role would be to drive the delivery of NZF’s Beyond Football Plan, which was introduced at the end of 2014 as a blueprint for elite football in NZ.
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