All Whites head coach Danny Hay and star striker Chris Wood. Photo / Photosport
A stoush has emerged between the All Whites and New Zealand Football, with leaked letters revealing that players have been left feeling disrespected and at odds with the board's plan for the team. Michael Burgess reports.
Relations between the All Whites and the New Zealand Football board are at a new low.
While there has been frustration expressed recently around NZF's apparent unwillingness to endorse Danny Hay as coach, a deeper issue is the unwillingness to take a proactive stance towards the All Whites match schedule for November, as well as planning for games in 2023.
The Weekend Herald can reveal four senior All Whites, with the backing of the wider squad, took the unprecedented step of writing to NZF president Johanna Wood and her deputy Scott Moran to express their concerns.
The quartet were expecting the letter to spark ongoing conversations, but that did not eventuate.
Instead, Wood and Moran replied with a letter of their own. Players told the Weekend Herald the response was "disrespectful" and lacked empathy. A former All White likened it to a teacher talking to third formers.
On July 14, captain Winston Reid, vice-captain Chris Wood, Bill Tuiloma and Joe Bell wrote to Wood and Moran outlining the issue they wanted to "raise, discuss and have resolved with immediate effect".
They referred to NZF chief executive Andrew Pragnell notifying the squad of an impending independent campaign debrief, and that there would be no games in November.
"That had us highly concerned," said the letter. "From our point of view, which we believe will be shared by all New Zealand football fans, the team must play at every given opportunity ... [to] build on the work done and what has been achieved over the past 12 months."
The letter said a six-month hiatus was "unimaginable".
They said the November-December window was an ideal opportunity for matches against top-50 ranked nations, both before and during the Fifa World Cup.
After creditable performances against Peru and Costa Rica in June, there was heightened interest in the All Whites, with approaches made to intermediaries and Fifa match agents.
The Weekend Herald understands there was interest from three European countries ranked inside the top 50, including one in the top 20.
With the majority of All Whites based on that continent and the possibility of some costs being covered, it would likely have been a cheaper exercise than in future windows.
The opportunity would also be rare. Since the 2010 World Cup, the All Whites have played only four friendlies against European opposition: Northern Ireland and Belarus in 2017, and Ireland and Lithuania in 2019.
The players reminded Wood and Moran that the All Whites didn't play for almost two years due to Covid and had already lost opportunities to play and evolve.
They acknowledge that international activity is costly but pointed out NZF has a surplus of more than $11 million.
They also pointed out the disparity between the number of games played by the Football Ferns (40) and All Whites (20) since 2018.
"Whilst we are incredibly supportive of the Ferns and their ability to be fully prepared for their home World Cup in 2023 ... all we'd like to see is a level of equality for both flagship national teams."
Reid and company finished by saying they would welcome the opportunity "to resolve this with immediacy, as it is an issue we feel very strongly about".
Nineteen days later, Wood and Moran responded on behalf of the board with a 900-word letter, essentially turning down the request.
"We opened up to them and we wanted to speak," one senior player told the Weekend Herald. "But we were shot down, with a blank wall. We were happy to get on a Zoom call or something like that to discuss further.
He said that the squad would have been willing to forgo their player payments for the week – "if necessary" – as a goodwill gesture.
Wood and Moran offered a flat no to the prospect of playing in November.
"The Executive Committee have endorsed the position of Finance Committee around the November Fifa World Cup 2022 release period, but if any of the information above is unclear or you would like to understand it better, please do not hesitate to reach out to us or Andrew so there is no confusion in relation to where we stand," said the letter.
"Naturally it would be our preference to have the All Whites playing as much as possible. Based on a recommendation of the NZF Finance Committee, the board made a decision earlier this year not to play in the November release period in the event we did not qualify [for the World Cup]. It is key that we plan activity prudently and in a planned way that enables us to be successful at both the Paris 2024 Olympics and also the Fifa 2026 World Cup, while balancing all of our other priorities."
Wood and Moran said that all activity needed to be undertaken in a "sustainable fashion" to ensure games in the latter stages of a cycle.
"Without prize money from the Fifa World Cup, New Zealand Football makes significant losses through the operation of its national teams, especially in the later part of a qualifying campaign," it continued.
The letter stated that NZF's 2022 budgeted operational loss was set at $3.26 million before any transfers from reserves.
Wood and Moran said they were confident they could "turn this business model around over time, especially with future World Cup qualification".
It said NZF had invested $10 million into All Whites tours over the last two World Cup cycles and that the team's activity this year was already $457,000 over the $2.4 million budget, though that didn't take into account any potential profit made from last Sunday's Eden Park clash with the Socceroos, with almost 35,000 fans at Eden Park.
The board noted the $11 million in reserves but said the 2022 losses, along with the programme over the next four years and a policy of reserves staying above $4 million, meant they needed to "exercise some caution".
"We do regret we are unable to accommodate the request to play in the November period and completely understand the desire to build on the momentum gathered. We ... consider the best way to achieve the goal of qualifying for 2026 with the resources we have is to have the team sufficiently resourced in the run-up to the qualifying games and related events in the 2023-2026 period."
NZF have yet to lock in any All Whites fixtures for next March.
It is also a prime window, with top Asian and South American nations available, along with a number of European teams, with the qualifying schedule for the 2024 European Championships to be released on October 9.
Johanna Wood declined to comment when requested by the Weekend Herald.
The All Whites will wonder what might have been, given the lapses for both Ukraine goals.