History for Marto

theprof

if it is Bazeley it just shows that NZF are just not interested in progressing the men's game anymore - for years they've trotted out excuse after excuse as to why we havent had games in the windows and even more excuses as to why we've had no home games. The leadership in that organisation is sharkhouse, they've managed to screw the game in NZ - and this has been a consistent thing since the 80's, they've mismanaged funds gained from qualifying for WC and other tournaments, they've managed to alienate players with poor coaching assignments (men and women's) and all for what? Where is the forward looking development plan, where is the talk of growing the game in Oceania and making our federation actually mean something? Where is the talk about maybe merging with an asian federation or moving? None of that! why? because the fat cats at the top see the big payday from the Men qualifying for the WC becuase even the worst AW's team should beat the smallest nations' teams and with 42 teams in the WC Oceania gets 1.5 spots. Yay for us - we can line our pockets and remain passive.
No forsight - if Bazeley is the man picked for the job the AW's will be god awful!

If it is Bazeley then surely the jury should be out until he's actually had a run. Writing the tenure off before a ball has been kicked doesn't help anyone. All that'll happen is if things go well there'll be crickets, and if and when things don't, the detractors will come out and feel vindicated. Under previous coaches there was a sense some people wanted the team to lose just to have their 'told ya so' moment. If in two years things don't look too great, bearing in mind friendlies aren't the be-all and end-all, then questions should be asked, and perhaps the more vociferous opponents can offer to help finance a replacement, because NZF obviously can't afford many of the more favoured candidates.

As for NZF not talking about moving to AFC, that's not surprising at all. It simply isn't up to them. I can't think of any reason AFC would want us, not competitively nor financially appealing. OFC also wouldn't us to leave as it'd be the beginning of the end for them, and they would be a even bigger pain for everyone in AFC. Look at the records of non-NZ OFC teams at FIFA youth tournaments, where the gap is smaller than at senior level. The only time a senior island team went to a FIFA tournament they conceded 10 to Spain and 24 in total from their three games. FIFA would scrap OFC if that happened at a World Cup as it would make a mockery of the tournament. That's not even mentioning the women's side, where the top teams could genuinely put 20 or 30 on OFC sides if they wanted to.

I'm sure NZF would want to move if they had the chance. Playing the island teams probably loses money, three of the top five crowds since 2000 have been against AFC sides and we would be good shouts to qualify out of AFC with their expanded spots. But AFC isn't a charity designed to help out NZ. We can't just go hat-in-hand and ask nicely to join their club.

As for getting games, I can only really speak post-2010, I was too young before that, but the finances are the obstacle. It's fairly cut and dry I would have thought. For the most part, the crowds don't generate enough to make it work, since 2000 there's only been seven crowds in excess of 15,000. They were comprised of three Intercontinental Playoffs, two matches against Australia and two matches against World Cup opponents in the first window post-2010 World Cup; in other words, all big draws. New Zealand isn't a big draw to play away for opponents, given the 40hrs+ travel time to/from Europe, weak side and little financial incentives, so the majority of teams that would come here are unlikely to draw massive excitement from football fans, let alone general sports fans.