Capital Times slates NZ football.

Your Sports Talk Columnist, on May 30, cannot fathom why NZ Football would spend money on a friendly match against Wales. I�d like to take up his bet and detail one or two of the many reasons why:

1. Wales play football, so do New Zealand
2. During the club off season, footballing nations often play friendly matches when they�re not playing in a competitive competition
3. Wales are quite good at football, New Zealand are quite average at football, playing better teams is seen as a way to improve the quality of New Zealand football
4. It is unlikely that Wales will travel to New Zealand for a friendly, and therefore playing opposition of this reputation/ quality requires that New Zealand travel instead

With respect to the financial management of New Zealand Football; the idea that sports should be run as money making ventures is a philosophy that has been imposed on sport by money hungry corporates. Some of us out there know that sports is primarily about sport, not making money. Therefore, when there is some money around, spend it on sport. There is such a thing as an acceptable level of loss. It must be noted also that friendly games are not always a loss making exercise, has your columnist spent any time researching whether or not any gate take sharing arrangements were made between the sides?

Your columnist also displays a typical lack of insight, that is common among half-pie small time journalists in this country, with respect to player transfer and contract negotiation. He seems to think that the Phoenix Management were unaware of Richard Johnson�s pending case regarding his drink driving prosecution. He obviously has made no effort to do any research, as the rest of us know, Phoenix Management has factored in a clause into the contract allowing it to be terminated, should Johnson be convicted and sentenced to jail. Johnson has since won his appeal, and has been handed a suspended sentence, and will play after all. In his feeble effort to write something original, your columnist has jumped the gun, and made a fool of himself.

Sports talk is quick to jump on New Zealand Football, when many of the football fans in New Zealand (like myself) would be quick to praise efforts in  securing the international fixture in the first place.

To The Editor, Capital Times

Reference: http://www.captimes.co.nz/column/23/n/1280/ProblemsinNZfootball.boss

I have just had the displeasure of reading one of the most poorly-researched articles on New Zealand football that has ever been written. The complete article is so short on content that even I would be embarrassed to put my name to it. No wonder you haven�t attributed it to anyone on your website. Just a photo of Mr No-Name.

Had your journo done his research properly, rather than just sit in the office mulling over a latte, he would not have even opened with his first sentence � which by the way - is a complete crock of pony.

New Zealand Football IS the subject of a case study by Massey University, who are using women�s football to study recovery times and a number of other health issues that could benefit the game. This research is the first of its kind in the world�and funnily enough it was on the Close Up programme earlier this week. Football Fan 1 v Journo 0.

New Zealand Football has to work its way up the rankings. This entails generally playing sides more highly ranked, and yes, these countries are in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia � so that is where we have to head. We have to play games to improve, and it costs money for sure. If your reporter was up to it, he should have gone to FIFA and asked them about the ranking system they have in place. It was designed by some Zurich professors and whilst is a mathematical nightmare, has been designed to reward nations with points based on a multitude of issues, including scoring goals, scoring goals away from home, getting a draw away from home and the ranking of the opposition.

So just on that basis alone, New Zealand should find that they will either rise in the next FIFA ranking release, or the one after that, if they missed the cut-off date for the month. If they don�t rise, they will at least collect more ranking points bringing them closer to the next ranked team. Football Fan 2 v Journo 0.

Your journalist strikes me as been well out of his depth when it comes to understanding the machinations of New Zealand Football and what they are trying to achieve. Look, I�ve been critical of them in the past but to give them their dues they have made some good changes over the last few years and there has been hardly anything resembling the �shooting themselves in the foot� fiascos of the old days. Getting onto the Ukraine game, had New Zealand played that match against the 11th ranked team in the world and lost by a cricket score it would have given more ammunition to FIFA to close another door on the face of not just New Zealand, but the bigger picture � Oceania Football.

Another point I would like to bring up is that to make it easier for our better players to gain contracts with foreign clubs, especially in Europe, we need out national team to be ranked up in the top 70. So, part of the reason NZF spend money on these games is to also assist the players personally. There is a bigger picture to what you see superficially. A highly ranked New Zealand will benefit the best players, as they need to be seen to be world-class to gain working permits. Generally immigration officials will look at the players home nation ranking to use this as a guide.

I am sorry to have to write this, but I couldn�t let the article go unanswered. Perhaps you could let your man have another go at this article and put a more balanced perspective on it. It is very easy to write stuff from the outside looking in, but there was no substance to the original article and if you were looking for a space filler, perhaps I suggest a football photograph could have been the better move. I know of an award-winning football photographer that could do you justice on that count (tongue in cheekJ)

Yours in football,

1 Moule Place

Woodstock

HAMILTON