Andy Martin - All you expect and less

Did you mention the fact that we have no game in the window before the nations cup? A general lack of games for the senior mens team.

Overall its a minus. There is a lack of transparency as well.

I think 3 years for a CEO role is a fair period to judge, so while minuses are stacking up, overall there is time to redeem - but he needs a few big wins.

Good summary, Global.

I believe the vote against Blatter emerged more from the political wing, and incoming president Deryck Shaw.

The FFA will tolerate almost anything from them or Victory fans.

Remember this article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/759...

According to that NZ Football is now actually in breach of the collective bargaining agreement with the NZ PFA because of a lack of game in this window.

You couldn't make any of this up, it makes Shortland Street look like, well, Shortland Street........Hang on, I hear the Muppet Show theme tune starting.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/76956518/ben-strang-andy-martin-needs-to-resign-as-boss-of-new-zealand-football

Not just Andy Martin who should resign. The person who took all of Tuesday to figure out that they did not know what they were doing would be another candidate.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11590844

I think having Sport NZ in control of NZF to break down the admin deadwood is one of the better ideas I've heard.

Hudson can go with him as well. there ruining Football in this country!

Add Scott Gilligan to that list. Another usless aussie who only had to coach some defence for one game vs Solomon Islands to get the Futsal Whites to a world cup.

It only took him nearly four years and still could't come up with a plan. So do you think some poms and aussies give a toss about improving footie in NZ.

N.F.W do they.

TBF, the futsal whites have never won the ofc champs while the solomons have 5 times.

Yeah I think there's a big difference here when you look at the focus of the two countries on futsal. For Solomons they've had a lot of OFC funding for futsal & they kick major ass at it. For NZ it's probably the least well funded of the disciplines - but arguably they haven't had a Herald article about their f*ck ups because they don't exist.

Durante calls for NZF heads to roll

I think the skipper sums it all up perfectly. One too many stuff ups from NZF and people's careers and livlihoods are at stake.

Big fan of Andrew Durante, but not sure he has quite the breadth of significance or insight to be the person critiquing the administrative issues the national body faces in the media. 

Not his fault... Smacks a little bit of a journo with a limited contact book who puts incongruous talent on the spot.

So as a media exercise I reversed the roles to see how it might read if we had the NZF chief executive suddenly coming out and similarly offering a personal memoir on something he was not qualified in.....

Andy Martin calls for change at Phoenix after a run of fiasco defending

Andy Martin says change is needed at the Wellington Phoenix after yet another defensive botch up.

The NZ Football chief executive vented his frustration at the Phoenix two days after they haplessly lost 3-1 in Christchurch with a dire performance against an equally duff Central Coast Mariners team.

The loss extended Wellington's winless streak to eight games, as they continued to leak some pretty crap goals.

"Such silly stuff-ups, it's unacceptable and probably one too many [losses] now," Martin said.

It was another embarrassing mess-up from the Phoenix back four after a string of earlier losses.

Martin said everyone in the New Zealand footballing community were growing tired of the errors from Phoenix defenders.

"I think everyone is extremely frustrated with them," he said

"It's not just Andrew Durante, it's everyone, and it's unacceptable in my eyes.

"One mistake you say OK, but when there are so many happening so often, it's time to stop."

Martin did not want to comment on what should change with the back four but agreed that something had to be done.

"It's plain to see that there's probably been one too many big stuff ups and I'm probably not the person to comment on what should happen, but it's clear that something does need to happen."

It come after All Whites coach Anthony Hudson hit out publicly last month around a soft culture among some the country's top young players, many of whom are with the Phoenix.....

.........

Excellent use of your journalistic skills Bruce. 

Now NZF, don't frigg this up for the Nix - You owe us for the loan screw-up.

A former international player commenting on the national body's administration of the game is in no way comparable to the CEO of the national body commenting on on-field performances of a professional club.

I get your point that maybe there's people better positioned to be commenting on NZF than Dura but they are probably bound by codes of conduct or don't want to damage working relationships.

I'd rather hear from Dura than from one of the regular commenters from the class of 82

Hi Conan, I wonder if you have missed my broader point.

I'm questioning the qualifications of high profile players in general to speak on the tribulations of football's administrative challenges unless they have a very personal memoir to share. Which in this case, as we have seen, Durante doesn't.

Perhaps if I draw a media parallel with court case coverage, where the assailant gets found guilty - and the media inevitably then ask the victim's family to critique the sentence.

They respond from an emotional perspective, rather than any familiarity with the law, previous precedent, mitigation factors,comparable sentences etc. In other words, it adds nothing of substance to the public's wider understanding of the issues in any rational sense.

In this instance I don't see that Durante is adding any value to the debate. We are no further ahead in understanding the essence of the problem or the solution.

Any affiliated person is subject to codes of conduct, whether player, administrator or coach. Even Durante, I suspect.

Hope this helps.

The situation Dura's commenting on also directly impacted on the fortunes of the club he captains - and if he doesn't have a proper insight it's only because NZF aren't being transparent on how this mess happened.

As an outsider looking in on contemporary journalism I suspect that the death of print newspapers and the size of the New Zealand market has eroded previous capacity for more in depth investigative pieces in favour of short, attention-grabbing stories which can be put online quickly and often, because they generate more clicks and therefore more advertising revenue than long-form pieces. More of an editorial issue than the fault of the writer.

What do you think? 

Hi Conan,

From a journalistic perspective, for generations the instructions from the chief reporter's desk were always: get immediate reaction; ring such and such, harvest a few comments. (as opposed to let's get some rigourous serious independent analysis of what has just occurred)

You'd often end up interviewing people totally uniformed about the matter at hand, either because the news had just broken and they hadn't digested it - or they were patently incapable of adding anything of substance to take a story forward because of subjective factors (such as knowing very little about how transfers are conveyanced)..

If they had opinions, they would invariable be empty ones.

For instance, with this transfer issue, rather than interviewing Durante I would have loved to have seen a piece talking to some federation officials, or longstanding club official, on how they process transfers, and what happens at each end, asking them about some of the more colourful anecdotes over the years; perhaps touching on the instructions to clubs (such as the timeframe for an internatinoal clearance being up to 28 days); perhaps also exploring some of the administraive curiosities of football (where Fifa does not legally recognise emails), some of the frustrations; and past mistakes.

In other words, if the story is about football administration, talk first to contacts who deal - or who have dealt - in football administration - as opposed to the Phoenix captain, top bloke though he may be at clearing his lines.

Dura probably does have some insight though, he went through the whole clearence process when he change his alleigence to NZ from Oz. Who knows what the finer points of that episode where.

Hi Napier,

With international transfers they don't even sign a piece of paper. Photocopy of passport, club details, email and phone number.

players learn nothing of the mechanics of transfers and unless they are being billed I'd wager they wouldn't even know the cost of one. 

Bruce that's a quality view point you bring to the table here and I guess us commenting whom disagree with your view, you could say they argue on emotion because they could construe your opinion as an attack at Dura. It's not, but many opinions are based on many things and people in football never agree...

You run Melville, you've been at this for a long time. Why don't you do something along the lines you suggest. Ivan Vulsich would be a good story as of recent international transfer history

Martin continues to be hammered in the press.

Surely he has to do the honourable thing shortly.

Mark Reason's opinion column

How the hell does that guy have a job as a journalist. He's barely legible.

I want the same he had. Trippy.

I did laugh at the "Andy Martian" twitter account which said the full banner read: "Andy Martin out of internet"

I'm amsued by the people who think it's only about the Jones issues.  Conveniently ignoring the Olympic disaster, the All Whites form, the All Whites lack of an international programme and the rest of the mess Martin has overseen.

Jones was just the last straw.

#MartinOut

I literally haven't seen a single person ignore all of that. 

What you mean we ballsed up something to do with the Olympics? Well I never.

Definitely Martin out then

Apparently he has also managed to get off side with the federations

Let's face it, he's managed to get off-side with just about every organisation and everyone!

Which makes me think the issues at NZF run higher up the chain than just the CEO.