Fifa blocks Vanuatu match in Christchurch

Fifa blocks Vanuatu match in Christchurch

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4207694a18075.html "Yesterday, however, Fifa officials from Zurich informed Seatter playing both games against Vanuatu in New Zealand would create a precedent that simply would not be tolerated."

i suppose on the plus it gives me another excuse to come to Welly for a few weeks

That ridiculous. FIFA would rather Vanuata just default the game than play in NZ. As Seatter said. how are they going to organise a foreign venue, and tv coverage in time.

"but the last thing coach Ricki Herbert and his team would want was a draining trip to Honiara or another South Pacific outpost before returning to Wellington to face Vanuatu four days later."
will NZ play senior A friendly with Solomon Islands ?

It wouldn't be that unprecedented though. World Cup qualifiers involving smaller nations have often involved moving the location. I'm sure it has happened before that a country has had two home games, but would have to check my records (I maintain a complete listing of all WC games ever for the spreadsheets on my site). I'm pretty confident that Luxembourg have played a "home" game against the Dutch in the Netherlands, plus the Asian qualifiers used to regularly involve giving home advantage across legs to a single nation.

I can't believe that,

All this means is that the All Whites can't play what's officially an away game in New Zealand.

From this mornings Herald.
"A teleconference call among the four nations and the Oceania Football Confederation tomorrow will consider a plea to delay Oceania World Cup matches set down for next month between New Zealand and Vanuatu and Fiji and New Caledonia."
Cue Benny Hill music.
Why didn`t Vanuatu make some provision to play this game in another country months ago just in case they qualified?

If Vanuatu are thinking of involving Ticketek in all of this, the qualifiers will end up being played in 2012...

With the pre-ordered match tickets arriving in 2015...

Good to see The All Whites have to play the Fiji game at North Harbour, question is will there be any supporters there, or will they all be in their Auckland apartments watching Chinese TV?

give us another game we got over 10,000 to the last one

Better to play in Christchurch, with a crowd.

I'm guessing I'm probably one of the few to be pleased by this news as I was going to out of the country for the game in Welly and was well gutted.

With the new dates I will be here and singing load with everyone else.

Fantastic!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the game in welly, never been to an All Whites game before. I couldn't make a game against Aussie a few years back that I wanted to see.