If 2ndBest is right and NZF are going to set up an "Academy" to run head to head with the Phoenix Academy/WeeNix and Ole then it could be the biggest clusterfudge I've seen in football in this country in years.
NZF should be administering the game and trying to align parties, not competing with excellent (and privately funded to boot) programmes.
Sad times. But as Leggy points out, hardly unprecedented.
I thought Nix had been working with NZF to make their academy/pathway the NZ 17's one?
If NZF looked at this properly (haha), they would see there are many environments in which good players are developing under good coaches. They would then select the cream of the crop - from all over; and get them into a pre-tournament programme; which would have a certain, limited, and distinct life (hard to get more than 4 weeks together for these school kids?). I suspect this is actually what is happening pre Chile (with the one exception of Declan's Ole players not getting a look-in); rather than any nixling competitor. That aside, Jose and Paul did an excellent job of viewing players from every other reasonable, known environment.