Somewhat misleading article.
Should be headlined "Rumour that All Whites Match Against World No. 1 Belgium to be Scrapped"
If you read the article it says:
"In a statement issued to Stuff, NZ Football denied the game was set to be scrapped: “Nothing has been confirmed in regards to our fixture against Belgium. As we said when the game was announced, it is provisional on the safety of our players.
”We are continuing to monitor the situation in Europe for both getting our players in and getting them home without disruption to their domestic season.”
TV 3 have also jumped the gun in announcing it being scrapped.
TV One have not reported it as being scrapped.
The NZ Herald at least report that it is a report from another media source that the game has been cancelled and quote Newshub (TV 3) as their source.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?...
"Football: All Whites' match with world number one Belgium set to be canned – report"
However in reality:
"When contacted by the Herald, an NZF spokesperson denied that the fixture had been scrapped."
There has been no statement whatsoever from NZ Football or the Belgian FA about the game being scrapped.
It may be, it may not be....
Does any part of the NZF statement say the game hasn't been cancelled? Just a vague 'nothing has been confirmed'. There is nothing misleading about the Stuff article (or Newshub's initial report).
Except your own report says, "In a statement issued to Stuff, NZ Football denied the game was set to be scrapped: “Nothing has been confirmed in regards to our fixture against Belgium...."
There's nothing from NZF that says the game has been scrapped.
Sounds to me like they are waiting to see if it will be possible to field a team and so haven't announced anything yet either way.
My problem too is that neither you nor Newshub name a source to give your claim of cancellation any credibility.
A journalist friend of mine is pretty scathing about Newshub's credibility.
After so many staff cuts they just don't have the reporters on the ground any more to properly investigate things.
Witness the lack of local football stories now on TV 3 News compared to the regular reports from TVNZ One.
TVNZ One are quite impressive - they even interviewed young NZ footballer Monique Fischer whom is playing in Sweden in a report on the Covid situation in Sweden in the main body of the 6 pm news on Thursday night.