Fritz Schmid - All Whites babysitter

So Schmit had us narrowly lose to Kenya but beat Chinese Taipei and India all at full strength with All Whites D team. 

Beat my expectations and I look forward to some more international games.

I am hoping we get at least an international game in every window, better if we have two!

Just can't see it happening with budget. 

If FIFA's proposed nations League gets the green light - the AWs will be gteed regular competitive games. 

Admittedly they will have to start with other OFC teams in Division 4. But AWs should be good enough to progress up into a higher Division of Asian sides (I'm presuming that's how they would progress if good enough).

Stumbling block seems to be UEFA - even though they are kicking off their own European Nations League later this year. Selfish bastards

I just read in the Hindustan Times that India’s English manager rested a number of his better players for the NZ game and rued this decision.

I think it was UEFA who originally proposed the FIFA Nations League. Though typically some of the European football leagues have started objecting.

Have they actually indicated there would be promotion/relegation between Oceania & Asia? All I saw them say was that Oceania are in Div 4. If there isn't the chance to get into the Asian divisions, it would suck for us. 

My understanding was that UEFA had come up with their own UEFA Nations League for their own members then FIFA came along and nabbed the idea for the entire planet. I'm presuming that the FIFA model takes away some serious money from EUEFA if they were going to do it themselves [EUFA that is].

Yip, UEFA took the idea to FIFA for ratification. FIFA said, great idea, we'll have it (and the revenue). Works well for us though because we need the games and the $$

The details are still a bit sketchy but yes OFC countries will start in Div 4, and will be only Confed that won’t have nation at 8 team finals. However understand will be pro/rel, so presume AWs could be promoted to higher divisions presumably as part of Asian Confed. Makes sense geography wise. 

Could be great for NZF, esp re getting meaningful regular high profile AWs games at home.

Hopefully FIFA and UEFA can sort it out. 

I'm so excited for this, both in Europe and in Oceania if the proposal goes ahead!

I think it was a young go-getter in the pages of Sitter! who proposed it around 15 years ago

Schmid seeming to be a better choice so far than Heraf? In our limited exposure to the games of both, one has had a few successful games and the other has some unhappy players.

ATM my granny seems a better choice than Heraf and she died in November last year!

Schmid may be better, but I think we need to see what he does wth the full team before we can really judge him fairly

Most weren't happy that the other guy, couldn't do better than losing by only 2 goals to Peru.

That other guy didn't get many non Oceania games (admittedly he had a couple), against sides as weak as India, Kenya & Formosa.

Similar games from memory under Hudson - Myanmar (current ranking 138 - draw), Oman (84 - won), Thailand (122 - lost). He had more full strength squads than Schmid for sure, but all those 3 games were away (ie not at neutral venues).

Promising signs, but early days for the Austrian. And his close links with Heraf will raise some questions over his tenure.

Not to mention that the football Schmid wants us to play is infinitely more positive than anything under Hudson. Hope there’s no more lumping balls forward to Wood scoring zero against Papua New Guinea. Hudson’s like Heraf right now compared to him

Also, Schmid seems a lot less arrogant and is very willing to listen to the fans, public etc. and take criticism or advice, as opposed to Huddo who just brushed it off because he was above other’s opinions. Take for example Schmid coming to the forums to look for Kiwi players we wanted to be called up

Surprise surprise, football journalist has better sources than people on internet forums

To be fair, this was on the back of completely rubbish put out from football journalists around the Nix ownership issues where the 'sources' weren't exactly unbiased.  At the same time, I don't think it is fair to tarnish some of the quality football journalism that we seem to have at the moment here in NZ with the rumour mongers from across the ditch,

Honest or gullible question. Schmid has come onto fan forums, for suggestions/opinions on what players he should call up?

Does he have his own profile? I'd hope not given his role so it's all smoke and mirrors whether he's even had more then a cursory look at this website.

Yup, I remember watching the story on Newshub when he was announced and they made a big deal about Schmid and associates listening to the fans to see which players they want called up, including browsing 'fan forums' (which means this one at least). It's how he called up Nikko Boxall and Niko Kirwan among others I think. I'm sure there's an article about it somewhere on the web

I can confirm I have heard the words "Yellow Fever" spoken by Fritz Schmid. It says more about the state of NZF's player database/tracking than anything. Not sure why people see it as a concern.

Don’t think it’s a concern, just a bit odd.

Did Hudson take his world map, and pins with him.

Why is it odd to gather information from whatever source you can?

I do know that the football manager game is often used for reference purposes

*waves to Fritz*

I am sure Dolaras is really handy Andy in disguise 

Balbi has met me. My haircut is better

How nervous must Fritz be feeling? 

He should be about as nervous as Des, Jose and Co. He might even fancy his chance at being promoted to the Technical Director.

Based on?

For a starter he is Swiss not Austrian

I have no qualms about the style of football fritz had us playing in India. 

But given the whole 'chip and star' thing, my concern is how he would have us playing if we were playing stronger opposition.

I have heard that Heraf's 'personality' has impacted negatively upon the All Whites, but I did not hear anything that suggested that Fritz was a part of this

Considering Formosa hasn't existed since 1895, I am not surprised we beat them.

I am!

What do you suppose Fritz actually does? There can't be that many national team managers that don't actually ever put a team on the field, so what would his day to day be? He has a cushier job than someone at Metservice......

I'm guessing he's watching a lot of video footage of games his players are in. He wont be traveling as NZF dont have the funds fr that.

Checks the fax machine every thirty minutes

Interesting video made by Fifa. Fifa will be giving out more money to FIFA member associates in the period of 2019-2022 Is great for NZF as they will receive 6 million USD plus extras such us 2 million USD for infrastructure projects. This money wil go along way to help us get more matches and ones at home and against top oppositon.

$6M will certainly help. 

But I think attempting to qualify the AWs alone in the last cycle, reportedly cost $8-9M, and the only game at home of note was Peru in Wellington.

With UEFA, CONCACAF & now CAF (Africa) setting up Nations League competitions - availability of "quality" teams for friendlies will be getting thinner on the ground anyway.

If AFC sets up a Nations League, OFC and the AWs will badly somehow need to be a part of it.

To be fair to Schmid not sure what more he could do if he's not given any games to coach