Effecting Change at NZF

NZF have published their annual report which includes high level details of the World Cup review...

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/2013_Annual_Report.pdf

So after all that, the review has determined:

1/ That there should be a plan.

2/ That a committee should make a plan.

3/ That there should be meetings to discuss the plan.

4/ That the plan should be resourced.

5/ That success should be measured against the plan.

6/ That everyone should get behind the plan.

What a breathtakingly insightful review.

Regular revues ...! 

Excellent  !! 

Always enjoyed a good revue....

BTW ...did anyone expect anything more than this , pre chewed , flavourless pablum ....

Also , have'nt we already GOT  a new Head Coach ...?

How old is this ?

"Sixth straight year NZF has recorded a strong surplus"

You're just trying to provoke me.

Must. Resist.

But the implication is that none of that existed previously.

So it is indeed a great leap forward into a brave new world of having a plan!

What we need now is some form of manager to help our better players to a higher performance standard .....

You mean having a plan to make a plan.

In better news, $3.5m transferred to International Teams Activity Reserve on back of TV revenue from Mexico playoff.  When initially set up after 2010 World Cup with prize money, $2.5m was set aside.

So should see more games and better prep for our youth teams.

better pay for support staff did you say

Bigger , Better ,  Troughs ....

All jokes aside there are at least a few interesting recommendations in there:

"Key stakeholders to be aligned behind the All Whites plan and to honour the commitments and compromises contained therein"

Is that a shot at the players and player availability? What other key stakeholders might have been seen to be not honouring their commitments previously?

"New Zealand teams to adopt a style of football that suits New Zealand players and conditions so that players have the requisite skills to transition into the All Whites environment"

That seems to be a clear warning to the NZ age-grade coaches to toe the line. Is this a real problem at the moment? Players also transition to the All Whites from other environments such as ASB Prem and the Phoenix, but it's hard to imagine NZF expects to have any say in how they play.

"The All Whites need to transform their performance culture into one of ownership, accountability and leadership"

That's a clear shot at the All Whites playing group and management and fully implies that those things are not there at the moment. Pretty disappointing from the outside looking in if that's true.

It would be good if they acknowledged that this is a sports team! This genuinely could be the revue of a government department, how about some specifics? What a crock of shit, I could have wrote this in 5 minutes. 

If your assumptions are correct about taking a shot at players and team culture (and they seem reasonable) this would go some way to explaining why NZF released such a bland high level summary. 

The problem with this is the statements are so bland that it's left up to us to project our assumptions of the failings of the last World Cup cycle onto it.  

I really do feel like this is, as predicted, a complete and utter whitewash and reflects really badly on NZF as a membership organisation.

It's just so pathetically bland and full of corporate bull shit.  No-one takes any accountability and no-one assumes any responsibility for the next 4 years.  

I'm actually really pissed off about this, it's just laughable that this is all we get after a 4 year cycle which ended up with us preparing for a World Cup qualifier by playing semi-pro american teams and players retiring in their droves.  

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=3203&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=10&cHash=5041fa92b3

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/nominees-accepted-for-executive-committee/

I've heard of two of those people.

be interesting to know all their ages (if anyone can be bothered researching it)

So were Frank and Fred (ok maybe not from the "mainland" lol or necessarily good blokes)

He was at the heart of protests over the pay-to-play policy for junior teams too. If I was Fred de J I'd be keeping an eye over my shoulder.

This policy is why zonk Jr won't go near the federation or national setups. Talk about blinkers full on.

It seems that there will always be some critiscm of NZF and truthfully Footballers can be a bunch of moaning pricks at times..

Overall the development, coaching and opportunities for footballers is at least 10 times better than in the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's..

Youth League, club tournaments, federation, national, private academies, clubs, some schools, NZF squads, National League, professional and educational pathways.. for both Genders..

It is the number one sport for boys and number two for girls in NZ..

NZ Football and the Football community is doing a considerable amount of good!!!

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/new-committee-members-confirmed/

Our current Fifa ranking is 133 - below that of Aruba, burundi, Guinea-Buisseau, Lichtenstein, etc. etc. etc. etc. ........... something wrong somewhere don'tcha think?  ........... moan, moan, moan ...........

To be fair Jerzy, the AWs rarely play which is a big reason behind that ranking. You can bet that if we had as many competitive games as Licthenstein gets, our ranking would be much higher.

plus when we do play competitive matches it is against island sides. Doesn't do much for our ranking. 

Phil Barry is from Wellington and is an intelligent, considered, thoughtful administrator of the game. I think he's a very good addition to the NZF board. 

I find that hard to believe if he played any part in the NW shermozzle

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/high-performance-blueprint-launched/

Here is the plan

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014-Beyond-Football-NZF-HP-Plan.pdf

Desired future state of Competition Structures - see p. 20 and 21.

A League: 2 NZ teams (Wngtn Phoenix plus another Auckland based team, each having developmental teams playing in the ASB).

All I read was 'more of the same'. 

We need more money and when we get that, we can do stuff with it. Its what they have been saying for how long?

Looks good. Means absolutely nothing if they cant deliver on it.

The main problem I read with this is that they have correctly identified they are short of funds for what they need/want to achieve. This is hardly rocket science for dummies and I am sure any 5yo on a Saturday could have told you this.

What they have really failed to address is HOW they are going to get that money. NZF have been saying for years and years they need more money. The reality is that to get sponsors on board, you need a little more than 'rugby is the nations game, football is the international game' or blurbs like that. You need to offer them tangible benefits that say 'here, if you sponsor us, here is what we can give to you in return for that'. Local businesses don't care about the 'international game' cause their market is local so they jump on the biggest gig in town - rugby. That right there is what many a commercial manager has failed to do over the years - provide tangible benefits to potential sponsors where they go 'we want a piece of that'. Yes, we got ASB, but that was fashionable for them to do so at a time right after the WC and we looked like we could have done it again (at the time) I understand that ASB have chosen not to renew this so their 10m/4 years is now gone. 

They need to either go after overseas sponsors that want exposure into NZ (China Bank) or businesses that want exposure into certain markets (they got one off sponsorship for the AWs game overseas?). A local businesses that wants exposure internationally will not get it with the AWs because they play once in a blue moon and the local programme, no one really turns up to watch.

Without the cash, everything else in the presentation will largely not happen.

(as a foot note, how much mileage have Huawei gotten from the Phoenix? That would be a good test case right there)

Whether you agree with it or not there is one of the key pieces in the ASBP puzzle: NZF see the A-League as being the top of the NZ football competition pyramid.

Quite a significant point that they are including the A-League within the scope of NZ's competition structure, rather than treating it as an exception.

I agree with that. It is a pragmatic reality.

From the video I got the impression they are keen on leveraging NZs leading trading partners that play football, I got the impression both in terms of matches and sponsorship.