New Zealand U-23s - Quali Whites

Heard a rumour that 60 players have been identified 

I didn't even know we had 60 players!

Probably includes NTC intake. Must be 5 I can think of in Chch alone.

good job Dimairo didn't make the 20s team I'm guessing

Looks like a lot of letters are going to be sent to FIFA for exemptions ?

Bail outs plz? We're the Greece of Fifa.

Sensing a new thread.

ineligible players

A Hudson

A Martin

B Pickstock

Are there ANY NZ eligible players who work at NZF? Team of Brits?

Yes, there are.

If you give me a list of all the registered players' surnames I can use my clever algorithm to work out who they are.

The 32 most likely surnames to be ineligible are:

Ardern, Clark, Cosgrove, Cunliffe, Curran, Davis, Dyson, Faafoi, Goff, Henare, Hipkins, King, Lees-Galloway, Little, Mahuta, Mallard, Moroney, Nash, O'Connor, Parker, Robertson, Rurawhe, Salesa, Sepuloni, Shearer, Sio, Tirikatene, Twyford, Wall, Whaitiri, Williams, Woods. 

I'm gonna read this purely on your recommendation. But to date I have never seen anything worthwhile from 'Reason'

(...but I think it's only McCullum-bashing I've seen...)

wtf? ah goddit.

Yeah. And he looked quite good. As did Adam Thomas - mystery man.

My Football Manager game just got scarily realistic...

If it says that OFC have hired Mai Chen then I'll start playing that game too, along with an injection into my TAB account.

Without pointing any fingers (... tempting...) I would be surprised if the head coach is responsible for checking players' eligibility. It's not his main task to focus on. 

He may say "I want this guy", and he will be told by the team management "No you can't, because he is not eligible, but thanks for asking - we'll send off an application to FIFA just in case, now that you mention him".

More than one person should have looked at these things, in a well-run organisation. With so much at stake, an apology is not enough - it needs a very good sweep with an HR broom.  With this bunch, I won't hold my breath though.

Ha!

Although the bit that intrigued me most - (after reading through it a second time) was that American Samoa made the final!

And out of interest, (regen's aside) who were the 3 ineligible players? I'm sure NZF would indeed be welcoming of such privileged information.

Thats a good article hope a few more journalist write and research this ... that no one has gone at NZF or seemingly no investigation as to how this happen is adding hhhhhhmmmm maybe adding to the reputation of the NZF administration internationally ... 

I've known for a long time that FM was great for finding Kiwi players.... Now it seems it's great for spotting the bogey ones too.

Maybe it's time FDJ, AH etc start gaming to actually learn some useful stuff about our players and teams and what happens when your "frugal" with the specifics.

Quite a Reason-able artice considering this guy normally writes a load of bollocks. He could have added why did NZF ask for dispensation for Durante and not feel that it was necessary for Wynn or any of the other foreign born players.

This has been a time bomb at NZF just waiting to explode. It was lucky that Vanuatu picked up on it.....imagine if it had happened at the full Olympic games and the NZ football team had been expelled. Now that would have been a global scandal.

Whatever the out come with their appeal NZF need to get their house in order....which they appear to have started to do with the recent emails to players. This needs to go right down to ASB level.

In the coming months we are probably going to see lots of players "outed". It might well change the makeup of the AW's...if Roux and wynn can't play then Hudson is going to have a problems in wide defense.

I don't agree that Hudson was to blame...he could  enquire about a player....its up to the admin/managers at NZF to do the paperwork

From what I recall about the Durante situation, the big question for NZF and fans was whether Dura was ineligible because he had been named in an Australia squad for a competitive 'A' International but had never actually taken the field. If that constituted taking part in the game in FIFA's eyes then he couldn't have played for us. Then when FIFA were looking at it they seemed to have no problem with that issue but instead focussed on his brief loan spell in Sydney and whether that meant he violated the 5 continuous years living in the country clause. So it wasn't really like the Wynne case, but the very fact that FIFA focussed on that clause maybe should have hinted to NZF that it was rather important.

Speaking of the 5 continuous years clause, I've been thinking about this rule and it's actually grossly unfair to nations with weak or non-existent domestic professional leagues. If Wynne wanted to pursue a professional career and play for NZ there's only one club he can play for and fulfill the requirements of 7d in the process. If Zalalem hadn't been granted an exemption and wanted to play for the US then there would have been heaps of clubs for him to play at while he accumulated 5 continuous years, and he could have had a chance to get quality coaching in a pro environment at a vital stage of his development. I don't know how the exemption process works and whether you get to state a case for why you think one should be granted, but if you do then I think NZF would do well to focus on that aspect of things - it's clear that it's unrealistic to expect every naturalised NZer to join the Phoenix when he's 18, or to pass on a pro career and stay in the ASBP, for 5 years if he wants to play for NZ.Even an Aussie in the same situation would have 9 fully pro clubs he could play for for those 5 years.

Imagine if you needed FIFA approval to buy a house in Auckland

I thought Durante's dispensation was because Durante had actually been in a soceroos squad but never made if off the bench?

Edit: Conan Troutman bet me to it.

Is a refugee or the child of a refugee born overseas automatically exempt from these criteria? Surely they wouldn't be allowed to play for the country they fled, so they have acquired a new nationality under the rules but fall well outside the spirit of the law and would be discriminated against if the law was enforced against them.

Yeah, Daniel's probably a better parallel, but I think the comparison between Durante and Wynn isn't so much on the similarity of their respective situations, but guess the fact that NZF acknowledged applicability of section 7 in Durante's case (i.e. an acquired nationality, so the 5-year rule applied), so it's pretty hard to mount an argument now that the section doesn't apply to Wynn (when he too is in the 'acquired nationality' situation).

NZF probably thought Wynne had done his 5 years while waiting for his NZ passport, as Dura did. Though, seems they did not know it has to be from 18yrs onwards (ageist much?)

Hmm, I think you're drawing too strong a conclusion there. Vanuatu can just as easily say that they're complying with sections 16.3 (a) and 10.3 in lodging their protest, and that the only issue at stake is the mechanism of the protest process/procedure.

I do agree with you though that focusing on that process is the best chance for any appeal to potentially succeed.

Yes, they may well have thought that - guess the point I'm trying to make is the argument they tried to make over applicability of the section (i.e. NZF saying at the press conference it's not section 7 that's applicable, etc.).

I hope it hasn't scarred you for life.

Devlin just mentioned on RS there's news re this issue that's embargoed 'til eleven... hopefully NZF admitting they've royally whucked up and a head or two is rolling. Though unlikely.

NZF Statement: OFC Decision - #MensU23s http://t.co/HTtVnkfeEc

— New Zealand Football (@NZ_Football) July 19, 2015

Not that someone doesn't necessarily need to be sacked, but I'm always a bit dubious about demands for "heads to roll". It's pretty much the same as "a sacrifice to appease the Gods!" I would agree with chopah that I'd much rather see a thorough clean-out of procedures than some schmuck being singled out as the scapegoat and everything else continuing as is.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/football-soccer/news/article.cfm?c_id=86&objectid=11483868