All Whites in Asia - March/April 09

is it just me, or does anyone else find it a llittle odd that herbert has picked moss for the upcoming friendlies when he's not going to be available for a while?

we seem to only have two keepers to pick from, one foul mouthed his way out of contention and there is no one else to step up.

reg222009-03-05 21:31:44

any truth tothe rumour NZF stuffed up Mossys appeal by missing the deadline?

No surprises there really with the way NZF works.
disco_mart2009-03-09 02:40:32

FIFA website suggests a friendly against Jordan in May.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/sports/13196/date-set-for-reds-match

New Zealand will also play another warm-up match with the Thai SEA Games side on March 31 or April 1

to me the strange thing about the Moss 4-World Cup match ban is that the game against Fiji was in BOTH the World Cup and the Oceania Nations Cup...yet the ban applies to only one of the competitions.

Yes, I find that very strange as well.

I suppose that if the four match ban is to apply, then it has to be only in one of the two competitions because it would be unfair to punish the player twice for a single incident. Since it is a four match ban and the confederation cup matches would only be about 3 matches in pool play (and unlikely to have a fourth match for an very long time depending on the changing conditions of the oceania nation cup formats), it seems that they thought it prudent to use four World Cup matches.

TBH, I thought if anything, that a four match ban was a bit too much and it should have been two or maybe three match ban if it was to apply only for world cup matches. But I would have accepted four or five matches would be OK if it included the confederation cup matches and one or both of the play-offs leg world cup matches. I feel that the national team has been punished severely considering that the he is not there for the crucial play-offs and then not for 2 of the 3 pool play matches. That is actually two campaigns he is not available for, i.e. the play-offs campaign and the finals campaign.

Effectively, it also means that he is banned for two years of world cup matches for using two words.

I would think that there would be appeals considering he was a player in a crucial position (GK) plus being there was no physical intention or intimidation on his behalf (I haven't seen the referees report nor seen the actual incident)

All in all, It appears to be a right mess.

Nah, Confed Cup doesn't come into it at all - the ban applies only for the competition it was received in UNLESS it exceeds the number of games the team has left in that competition, in which case it carries over to the next official games the team plays.

So to recap, Moss is definitely suspended for the 5th place Asian team playoff. If we qualify, he'll be suspended for the first two games. If we don't, he'll be suspended for the first two official games we play after our elimination from the WC qualifying process (friendlies don't count here). So the chances are he'd be suspended for the first two WC qualifiers in the next cycle, unless we end up playing in some sort of official competition before that cycle starts - highly unlikely.

confirmed by NZF