At first, sorry, if my english is not perfect. I am not a native speaker because I am german.
On my view it's a very clear situation:
The Ferns are top 20 of the world, while the All Whites even need a penalty shootout vs. Papua New Guinea just to win the Oceanian Cup ...
Erceg has won the NWSL in the USA, Amber Hearn plays here in Germany, Ali Riley plays top level in sweden, Rosie White made it to the NWSL, too.
'And where are the All Whites, no one of them play on a higher level. The keeper Marinovic plays here in our 4th german division the same league as Marco Rojas, who played for the Stuttgart farm team, because he wasn't good enough for the 2nd divison team ...
I know that every federation want to play a good role in MEN football, but NZF should evaluate WHERE they can make a statement, and where they are only the end of the bench ...
In women football they HAVE this chance. It woud be very sad to waste this talented team.
I have read here, that a qualification for the All Whites would bring more money. That might be, but what are their chances?
Look at the current running qualification: The AW already lost two points in NEW CALEDONIA ...
Sorry, but New Caledonia, do you know what Top 20 teams would do with them? I cannot write these bloody details, because I don't wanna abuse children reading here ... ;-)
I am pretty sure, NZL will win the oceanian competition, but how should the win the last round vs. the 5th best team of South America???
Sorry, but THIS is the reality ...
If NZF wants to play an international role they should spend most of their efforts in the Ferns.
Our women's team aren't as successful as you make out. They have won only three of their last ten games (two of those wins were friendlies). They have appeared in four FIFA Women's World Cups and never won a game (three draws, nine losses). The same level of success as our men's team (three draws in FIFA World Cups, the rest losses). At the last Women's World Cup in Canada in 2015, we failed to win a game, finished bottom of our group and ended the tournament ranked 19th of the 24 teams taking part.
The Football Ferns have competed in three Olympics, played ten, won two, drew one and lost seven. In last year's Rio Olympics we failed to make it out of our group and finished the tournament ranked ninth of the twelve teams taking part with only Colombia, South Africa and Zimbabwe ranked worse than us (none of whom are strong in women's football).
Our women's team has improved a lot over the last 14 years with better funding and coaching. In 2004 they were beaten 11-0 by North Korea and rarely won any games. They did well in their early years 1975 until the mid 1990's when women's football was amateur in every country and not well-funded, so NZ could compete well even against countries like the USA.
There's just such a huge difference between men's and women's international football both in NZ and internationally in terms of public interest and financial backing and return, that many of your points aren't really valid.
It's easier for our women's team to gain a higher FIFA ranking than our men's team because women's football is relatively weak internationally and our women's team has a basic level of funding and a fulltime national coach which many other countries lack, and we play regularly.
FIFA has over 200 members but many of them don't even have a national women's team (most Middle Eastern countries, many African and Asian countries). Only 127 FIFA members have a women's team who have played at least one international in the last 18 months and so have a ranking. Women's football is even weak in South America where Brazil is the only country strong in women's football (their national team gets good results but the players there complain that they are not paid much nor are they respected by their FA or the public). Brazil have only had a national women's team since 1986 - the idea of women playing football has only relatively recently become acceptable in South America. The only other South American team ranked in the FIFA top 50 is Colombia. NZ usually beat Colombia and Argentina in women's football because they aren't that strong. Argentina only played it first women's international in 1993.
http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-tab...
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador have not played a women's international for more than 18 months due to lack of funding and so do not even have a FIFA ranking any more !
There are only three African sides in the world's top 50.
Outside the top twenty countries in women's football there's a big fall-off in standard. NZ are ranked 19 (have fallen from 17 over the last year). But we have a record of beating all the countries ranked below us over the last decade. That's because they are not very strong, rather than NZ being particularly good. The teams ranked 21 - 30 are Scotland, Colombia, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Mexico, Ukraine, Finland, Costa Rica, Thailand. Those UEFA countries and Mexico are strong in men's football but not so much in women's.
Outside the say top 26 countries the standard in women's football is poor. Thailand are ranked 30 but NZ did not even field our national team against them late last year in two friendlies but rather an invitation "NZ A" side with a couple of internationals and several teenagers as young as 15 and still beat them comfortably.
Our national men's team, as in every country, generates much more public interest and revenue for our national association than our women's team. NZ Football are being paid $US 1.7 million for competing at the Confederations Cup in June. They earned $NZ 6 million for the TV rights for the play-off against Mexico for the last World Cup. At club level, our representative at the FIFA Club World Cup (usually Auckland City) earns a decent amount for competing, half of which goes to the other teams in our national league.
In comparison, even if our national women's team was more successful, there just isn't the same sort of money they would generate. They would still lose money for the national body. Even in the USA with its successful women's national team, the men's team generates much more income through TV rights and spectators at games, and its women's league has gone bust a few times the last decade with poor crowds, low TV ratings and minimal commercial sponsorship. Meanwhile Major League Soccer has been very successful.
Even when the Football Ferns had their highest level of funding at last year's Rio Olympics with extra money from the government through High Performance Sport NZ because of their success in making it out of their group at the 2012 London Olympics, they couldn't repeat the success and make it out of their group again. Hence that High Performance Sport money has been cut right back with NZ Football unable to meet the shortfall.
As for your claim that "none of the All Whites play on a higher level" at club level that's an uninformed claim with Winston Reid the captain of West Ham in the English Premier League, Ryan Thomas a regular at PEC Zwolle for four seasons in the Dutch Eredivisie, Chris Wood the second-highest scorer in the Championship at Leeds, Tommy Smith at Ipswich Town, Sam Brotherton on a full pro contract at Sunderland, Bill Tuiloma at Marseilles, Themi Tzimopoulos a regular in the Greek Super League for several years, Jake Gleeson first choice goalie at Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer (playing at a much higher level than Marinovich), Jeremy Brockie is one of the highest goalscorers in the South African league the last two seasons, Michael Boxall is one of the best defenders in the South African league. Plus there's all the players who play in the A-League such as Rojas (showing how good he is again this season - he was never given a fair chance at Stuttgart due to injury problems and the club's management problems with so many changes of manager and relegation), Moss, Smeltz (second-highest scorer in the history of the A-League), McGlinchey, Barbarouses etc.
The A-League is probably under-rated in Germany but the best teams are of a similar level to the English Championship (Sam Allardyce said this after coaching both Blackburn Rovers and West Ham in friendlies against A-League clubs).