The off-field action continues to grab headlines at the Women's World Cup in China with New Zealand coach John Herdman caught up in the latest incident.
After using a two-way microphone to keep in contact with his technical staff in the grandstand during the Football Ferns' first-up 5-0loss to Brazil, Herdman and a number of other coaches have been told "no more" by Fifa officials.
"Fifa has banned the microphones," said Herdman after his team's battling 2-0 loss to world No 6 Denmark in Wuhan on Saturday night. "They said, 'Enough is enough' and banned further use of them, which is a real disappointment for us. I'm not really sure why they have ruled this way but there have been rumours that some coaches have been connected to their players. I would be pretty amazed if that was happening."
Herdman said the team had invested heavily in developing an analysis system of which two-way communication was a key element.
"We have three people working on it all the time," said Herdman.
"Without this contact we were restricted at halftime to showing the players just a few clips from the first half."
He, his players and staff would have been reasonably happy at that stage of the match against Denmark as they were level 0-0 following some solid defensive play. Led by an outstanding game from Marlies Oostdam with support from Hayley Moorwood and goalkeeper Jenny Bindon, the Ferns coped admirably with all the talented Danes threw at them.
New Zealand face another stern test in Tianjin on Wednesday when they tackle the hosts.
