Rumour mill is, the under 17 coach has already basically got his squad lined up for next year and will be using the two year cycle to bring a core group in - eligible players overseas (and in professional environments) effectively told they won't be considered.
And from a different source, the coach admitted to administrators at one of the top clubs outside of Auckland City that he did no watch/stream any of their games during last season and didn't know wny of their players... thus their non-selection.
Was later forced to do a little back tracking when outside pressure was applied, but selected "the wrong players" according to the club, reinforcing his lack of knowledge of the local playing stock.
After the dismal performance of the u17, I am amazed he still holds the role and the above makes it even worse.
But NZF have the "Whole of Football Plan" in full force! hahaha comical stuff...its absolute bollix. One poor decision by the wrong person making a decision can have serious long term repercussions. Welcome to NZF. Never blame the players blame the clown upstairs.
Wynton Rufer does a great job - he is very selective with who he works with and he upskills the boys and theres no doubt he produces technically better players, but they have a bit of ability before he gets them. He would be great but he will never work with nzf.
Ole Academy seen by some as Cult attitude not the best. Not sure what its like now. A couple of players have come out of there. But players come out of other places too.
Agree talent has to be identified earlier in this country. That also takes the right people identifying the talent....problem is anyone with half a football brain in this country won't go near NZF or the game here.
The issues run too deep. But we must remember we are only a few small detached islands in the middle of the pacific....Never gonna be world beaters in the world of football. But we can try to improve with the right education with the right educators.
As for the last U17 keeping their job? These guys at NZF all ring fence their positions. No ones going no where. No ones to blame. No Accountability.
But NZF have the "Whole of Football Plan" in full force! hahaha comical stuff...its absolute bollix. One poor decision by the wrong person making a decision can have serious long term repercussions. Welcome to NZF. Never blame the players blame the clown upstairs.
Wynton Rufer does a great job - he is very selective with who he works with and he upskills the boys and theres no doubt he produces technically better players, but they have a bit of ability before he gets them. He would be great but he will never work with nzf.
Ole Academy seen by some as Cult attitude not the best. Not sure what its like now. A couple of players have come out of there. But players come out of other places too.
Agree talent has to be identified earlier in this country. That also takes the right people identifying the talent....problem is anyone with half a football brain in this country won't go near NZF or the game here.
The issues run too deep. But we must remember we are only a few small detached islands in the middle of the pacific....Never gonna be world beaters in the world of football. But we can try to improve with the right education with the right educators.
As for the last U17 keeping their job? These guys at NZF all ring fence their positions. No ones going no where. No ones to blame. No Accountability.
Good in the sense it will get our lads more meaningful matches against quality opposition at youth level. Something we struggle to do when it's not a World Cup year.
Being held yearly potentially means we're looking at a relatively full calendar of fixtures between qualifying and the World Cup proper. Which I guess is a good thing given we're boom or bust for fixtures at this level depending on if it's world cup year or not.
However
It's hard to not look at this and think of how much of a money grab it is.
48 teams is excessive.
Qatar...Well what's that saying 'If I speak, I will be in trouble.'
How did Qatar manage to get in on basically everything.
I mean it's common knowledge they bribed their way to hosting the men's 2022 World Cup, but surely hosting everything else isn't worth doing that all over again is it?
Good in the sense it will get our lads more meaningful matches against quality opposition at youth level. Something we struggle to do when it's not a World Cup year.
Being held yearly potentially means we're looking at a relatively full calendar of fixtures between qualifying and the World Cup proper. Which I guess is a good thing given we're boom or bust for fixtures at this level depending on if it's world cup year or not.
However
It's hard to not look at this and think of how much of a money grab it is.
48 teams is excessive.
Qatar...Well what's that saying 'If I speak, I will be in trouble.'
To be fair, is the U17 World Cup much of a money-maker? I'd have assumed it was loss-making. The crowds to watch kids football wouldn't be super, and with 48 teams the number of games with little/no crowd would increase. The cost of organising a tournament for 48 squads of 21 (plus a dozen support staff) isn't cheap. Accommodation, security, travel, stadium costs and so forth. For games that might not have four figure attendance.
The youth tournaments are ostensibly developmental things; I mean, why else would OFC get two spots? With growth rates of teenagers, biennial means you could be simply too small one round, then too old next. This just means fewer kids will miss out on that opportunity for reasons out of their control, like growth spurts etc. Likelihood is, most kids outside 'big' football nations won't have a bigger footballing moment (or any moment for those from some impoverished nations) than a U17 WC; just look at some names in NZ squads over the last decade or so. So I doubt the kids going will have any complaints; couple weeks of schools to focus on football, pride of representing the country etc.
As for Qatar, it's, of course, a bit contentious, but is like the size of Auckland and has a plethora of the most elite training facilities, accommodation and the like. The World Cup has made it a pretty well-equipped place, objectively looking. There are certainly worse places, amenity-wise, a World Cup could be held.
Qatar paying the bill at a guess whilst Fifa looks at the finances of it. How much tv rights it gets.
You do have to wonder if this format gets canned if Qatar realises that no one actually wants to visit or live in Qatar by choice.
Ive got lots of colleagues and a brother in law who all worked for businesses based there and they are all glad to now be in NZ, UK, Europe etc.
Not one has a nice world to say outside of tax-free earnings which they are all quite happy to forgo, not to have to be there anymore. Friends from Sri Lanka often comment on how much racism they endured.
See the Aussie u17 in Switzerland for 2 week camp and games... what are our boys up to?
Well the FA have more dosh than NZF, plus it's become a real issue now in Aussie - their age group teams failing to qualify for World Cups through AFC.
Is a U17 WC next year, and presumably same AFC U17 WC qualifying tourney.
Since joining AFC 2006, Joeys (Aus U17s) WC record below. Failed to qualify 5 times. Qualified 3 times, but never past R16.
2007 | did not qualify 2009 | did not qualify 2011 | Round of 16 2013 | did not qualify 2015 | Round of 16 2017 | did not qualify 2019 | Round of 16 2021 | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2023 | did not qualify
Only 3 players at the Nix. 6 based overseas, including 4 in Aussie. Connor Smith (FC Hennef 05) is in Germany.
Luka Vicelich, son of?
🇳🇿 Congratulations to the 23-players named in the team set to compete at the OFC Men's U-16 Championship, taking place this July and August in Tahiti 👏
The winner, runner up and third place from the tournament will qualify for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup set to be played in Qatar.
“It is always exciting to kick off a new age group cycle and I’m really pleased with the squad we have assembled after extensive scouting and identification games” says head coach Martin Bullock.
“We have seen from recent tournaments that the OFC nations are developing really quickly so these are going to be challenging games, especially for this age group were it is your first taste of international football.
“This is a brilliant opportunity for our players to play competitive matches and learn more about what it takes to be successful in the game, so I look forward to working with them to help them achieve their potential.”
Aotearoa New Zealand have been drawn in Group A at the tournament and will play Vanuatu (29 July NZ / 28 July local), Fiji (1 August NZ / 31 July local) and Cook Islands (4 August NZ / 3 August local).
All games will be played at Stade Pater, Papeete, Tahiti.
Only 3 players at the Nix. 6 based overseas, including 4 in Aussie. Connor Smith (FC Hennef 05) is in Germany.
Luka Vicelich, son of?
🇳🇿 Congratulations to the 23-players named in the team set to compete at the OFC Men's U-16 Championship, taking place this July and August in Tahiti 👏
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) June 25, 2024
Two of those Aussies are especially huge coups for New Zealand. Aaron Cartwright was called up to Australia's U-17s earlier this year; Joey Banza (2009-born!) just made his senior men's debut for WSW's NPL side last week, and is very highly rated in the WSW setup.
Alex Lienard another dual national I'm very glad we've snagged. 15, and has already made his U18 Premier League debut for Sunderland
Connor Smith is German born-and-raised, with Kiwi heritage (hence the name). Bit of a Pennington situation
All 4 of the players based in Aussie are at ALM clubs, so hopefully fairly useful. With around 1M people of NZ heritage living in Australia, there is going to be an increasing number of these kids making NZ national teams.
Bullock must be under some pressure after last year's pretty average performances at the U17 WC in Indonesia.
All 4 of the players based in Aussie are at ALM clubs, so hopefully fairly useful. With around 1M people of NZ heritage living in Australia, there is going to be an increasing number of these kids making NZ national teams.
Bullock must be under some pressure after last year's pretty average performances at the U17 WC in Indonesia.
A lot of people more in the know than myself reckon it's almost become a 'just happy to be there' vibe around qualifying to the U17 World Cup. Definitely an attitude that needs to change...
48 teams qualify for the U17's from now on, and it's a world cup year every year now too - exactly what we need at that level with what will amount to be a pretty full international calendar going from WCQ to WC in a very short space of time. Probably why OFC get 3 spots - Even so, that is awfully, awfully generous given NZ's own past poor performances on that stage.
You'd also imagine some of these guys, especially Banza and Cartwright would still be very much on the radar at Football Australia, so their selection will likely ruffle a few feathers across the ditch too.
Having an U17 WC every year, with the players at that age still often in their home towns, ie spread over the country - is going to lead to some pretty intense competition between the Nix and AFC, to try sign players up to their academies/reserve teams.
Note Nathan Walker (Winger, Fencibles), Matt Foord (GK, Cash-Tech) and Dylan Gardiner (CB, Hamilton W) signing after last year's U17 WC for the Weenix.
11 of the above squad are based at Northern League clubs. Only 6 at Central & Southern League clubs. Be interesting to see who goes to AFC & who to Weenix post the U17 WC in Qatar.
I think Mrs Mils said the Nix had already been talking to Brooke-Smith at Hamilton Wanderers. The Kiwi Klasico rivalry is already underway off the pitch.
And shout out to smaller club Fencibles their 2nd U17 national rep in 2 years. Nathan Walker was with them up to last year before leaving for the Phoenix.
And with the 4 'Kiwis' based in Aussie picked, especially those on Football Australia's radar. The awful recent record of Australian age group (U17 & U20) teams qualifying for World Cups - could be one reason with some of these guys have decided on NZ.
Even with an expanded 48 team WC (so presumably more slots for AFC teams), is no guarantee Australia will get to the U17 WC. These kids can always flip flop back to Australia later though, ie not cap tied. And because we now get to send a contingent of U17 boys annually to a WC (so basically double the previous number going to WCs), and all those valuable learnings, we shouldn't get too upset if some do flip flop back to Aussie.
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