New Zealand Football

History

It was founded in 1891, as the New Zealand Football Association and became officially affiliated with FIFA in 1948. for a period the organisation was known as New Zealand Soccer. In May 2007, the organisation was renamed New Zealand Football (NZF), replacing the word "soccer" with "football" in line with the common usage as for sometime football had been referred to as soccer in New Zealand.

New Zealand was admitted as a member of the Asian Football Confederation in 1964, but it lost membership later. New Zealand with Australia eventually formed the Oceania Football Federation (now Oceania Football Confederation) in 1966.

In September 2007, the New Zealand female football teams were re-branded. The women's national team changed its name from "SWANZ" to "Football Ferns", the female under-20 team to the "Junior Football Ferns" and the under-17 team became the "Young Football Ferns"

In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, New Zealand achieved their best result in their team's history when they had a 1–1 draw with reigning World champions Italy. Shane Smeltz scored in the 7th minute marking the first time New Zealand had ever led a match at the World Cup. They went on to become the only unbeaten team in the tournament.

Moving to South American confederation

In January 2013, members of the FIFA Executive Committee met in a private meeting convened by Joseph Blatter to discuss the possibilities of moving the New Zealand Football Federation to the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) in order to enhance the sport in the country. After the meeting, Blatter said the idea was "ratified" but needed some adjustments. This fact provided the New Zealand success in the idea of movement, requiring only a formal request by the association. But in June, the chief executive of the New Zealand Federation, Andy Martin, said his administration has no plans to promote the New Zealand Football to high-level competitions for now, meaning that New Zealand should remain in the weak Oceania Football Confederation.

International stage

In recent time, New Zealand Football has enjoyed good success on the international stage. The All Whites overcame Papua New Guinea in the OFC Nations Cup Final by winning 4–2 on penalties in the final. It was their fifth title in the OFC Nations Cup and it secured their place in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

In 2015, the Football Ferns reached their highest ever ranking (16), beating Brazil for the second time and qualifying for the Rio Olympics. The Men's U-20 and U-17 sides qualified out of their groups at their respective FIFA World Cup tournaments in 2015. New Zealand were one of only five countries in the same cycle to achieve this. The remaining four were Germany, Brazil, Mali and Nigeria

New Zealand co-hosted the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup alongside Australia, becoming the first ever senior FIFA event in New Zealand, the first Women's World Cup to be hosted in multiple countries, and only the second World Cup tournament to do so, following the 2002 Men's FIFA World Cup. It was also the first FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first senior FIFA tournament to be held in the Oceania Confederation, and the first FIFA tournament to be hosted across multiple confederations (with Australia in the AFC and New Zealand in the OFC).

Member federations

• Northern Region Football – following the merger of Auckland Football Federation and Northern Football Federation in 2020.
• WaiBOP Football
• Central Football
• Capital Football
• Mainland Football
• Southern Football

Competitions

• New Zealand National League (national men's league)
• National Women's League (national women's league)
• New Zealand Football Chatham Cup (national men's winter league's knockout competition)
• Kate Sheppard Cup (national women's winter league's knockout competition)
• Charity Cup (national league v chatham cup)
• Northern League (regional winter league)
• Central League (regional winter league)
• Southern League (regional winter league)

Defunct competitions

• ISPS Handa Premiership (national men's league) (2004–2021)
• National Soccer League (national club competition) (1970–1992 and 2000–2003)
• Air NZ Pre-Season Cup (pre-season competition) (1974–1985)
• NZFA Challenge Trophy (NSL vs Chatham Cup play-off) (1978–1987)
• Superclub League (regional/national superclub competition) (1993–1995)
• National Summer League (first national summer competition) (1996–1998)
• New Zealand Island League (north and south island competition with a play-off) (1999)
• National Youth League (youth league) (2003–2019)
• White Ribbon Cup (competition played by national league teams not at OFC competition) (2011)
• Charity Cup (national league vs New Zealand OFC representative play-off) (2011–2018)
• Winfield Challenge Shield

Current title holders

Controversies

In November 2008, Glen Moss was handed a 4-match World Cup ban after swearing at referee Lencie Fred in a dead-rubber 2010 World Cup qualification match against Fiji. New Zealand Football failed to lodge an appeal to FIFA in time after they received notification of the sentence on 23 December and were closing for the Christmas period. Moss was subsequently suspended for the two 2010 FIFA World Cup inter-confederation play off matches against Bahrain and the first two 2010 FIFA World Cup matches against Slovakia and Italy.

In July 2015, New Zealand was ruled to have forfeited its place in the 2016 Olympic tournament after fielding an ineligible player in its men's Under-23 team; NZF decided not to appeal the decision. It was subsequently reported that up to 16 ineligible players had been fielded in the men's Under-23, Under-20 and Under-17 teams between 2011 and 2015.

In January 2016, Wellington Phoenix signed Alex Jones on loan to the end of the 2015–16 season. The move fell through when New Zealand Football failed to forward the completed paperwork to FIFA before the transfer deadline despite having received it from the Phoenix three days previously. An appeal to the world governing body was unsuccessful, as FIFA "ruled to protect the integrity of their global deadlines for the transfer of players".

On 19 June 2018, a letter of complaint about current New Zealand women's national football team and New Zealand Football technical director Andreas Heraf signed by at least 10 players was sent to New Zealand football collated by the New Zealand Professional Footballers Association (NZPFA). Later that day it was also announced that New Zealand Football were deliberately flouting a FIFA directive that Heraf shouldn't be in charge of both roles at the same organisation.

The next day it emerge that the Players Union had sent a strongly worded letter to New Zealand Football, instructing them to discontinue all communications with players after Heraf and other New Zealand Football staff members were contacting players and strongly encouraging them not to write letters or issue any formal complaints.

That afternoon it was announced that Heraf would be place on special leave while an independent investigation was conducted into the allegations around bullying, intimidation and a culture of fear.

References

References

1. (9 October 1891). "N.Z. FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION.". Thames Advertiser.
2. (28 July 2014). "Commemorations & anniversaries". New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
3. (1966). "Soccer". [[An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand]].
4. (28 August 1964). "AFC Tells Indonesia: Pay or be Sacked". [[The Straits Times]].
5. "History". oceaniafootball.com.
6. link. (19 September 2009 , 4 September 2007.)
7. (20 June 2010). "World Cup Match Results: Italy vs New Zealand – FIFA World Cup 2010 – ESPN Soccernet". [[ESPN]].
8. "Nova zelândia na CONMEBOL: Os prós e contras da proposta, ''Revista Placar'', January 08, 2013.
9. "Plumb: NZ Football rolls the dice on new coach". [[Stuff (website).
10. "La isla y el fútbol de siglo 21, ''[[Olé (sports newspaper). Diário OLÉ]]'', 8 May 2013.
11. (25 June 2020). "The Reasoning Behind FIFA's 2023 Women's World Cup Vote".
12. (25 June 2020). "FIFA confirm Australia and New Zealand will host 2023 Women's World Cup". mirror.
13. (24 June 2020). "What you need to know about Australia-New Zealand's winning women's World Cup bid". www.abc.net.au.
14. "Joint Statement On AFF & NFF Proposed Alignment".
15. "Northern Region Football – About".
16. "Air NZ Pre-Season Cup". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website.
17. Grantley Bernard. (5 November 2009). "Moss Sees Red". Herald Sun.
18. (5 November 2009). "Banned Moss: NZF let me down". Herald Sun.
19. (9 October 2010). "New complaint casts doubt over NZ footballers".
20. Gray, Russell. (31 January 2016). "Phoenix sign striker on loan deal". Football Federation Australia.
21. Pine, Jason. (11 February 2016). "Football: Paperwork blunder puts English striker Alex Jones' Phoenix career in doubt". [[New Zealand Herald]].
22. (16 February 2016). "Alex Jones' stint with the Phoenix ends without a game as NZ Football blames lack of internet access for bungle".
23. (19 June 2018). "Football Ferns bombshell: Coach Andreas Heraf set for suspension, inquiry to look into bullying allegations". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
24. (19 June 2018). "Under-fire Andreas Heraf's double New Zealand Football role breaks Fifa coaching directive". [[Stuff (website).
25. (20 June 2018). "Ferns scandal: New Zealand Football told to stop contacting Football Ferns players, with immediate effect". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
26. (20 June 2018). "Andreas Heraf placed on 'special leave' as NZF announces Football Ferns review". [[Newshub]].