Ricki Herbert (Ba FC | Fiji)

This means the Pacific Games will be an U-23 tournament? Will the Oly Whites take part? I have read that it was something in consideration but can't found any OFC news that confirm this

I was a little vague - basically I was implying that Wynton and Ricki in the wider "Team PNG" makes things interesting. 

Wiki was my source for Wynton (plus I thought I heard it on Wynton's world of footy) 

I thought Wynton was the 1st team boss cause they recently played 2 away internationals and he was talking about how some of his guys had never left PNG. They got better as the game went on or something like that.

There's a feature on Wynton and the PNG side in the January "World Soccer" magazine published in London.

You can't deny the guy has good contacts - he scored internationals for PNG against the Philippines and Singapore because he played in Germany with Philippines American coach Thomas Dooley and knpws Singapore's German coach Bernd Stange too.

OFC approved in January making the Pacific Games football tournament in PNG the qualifying tournament for the Olympics with NZ u-23 etc. competing and this was ratified in early February by the Pacific Games organizers:

http://www.pina.com.fj/?p=pacnews&m=read&o=1368440...

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=295236

"At its meeting in Nuku'alofa, the PGC Executive Board also reviewed preparations for the Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games," Minogue said.

"This included endorsement of a proposal from the Oceania Football Confederation for Men's Football to include qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, subject to certain conditions being met around the participation of New Zealand and the capacity of teams to field a full squad of players aged under 23."

And now since the Pacific Games is an Olympic qualifier for Oceania, the Pacific Games football tournament will include New Zealand as well.

According to Minogue New Zealand cannot win a Pacific Games medal.

Minogue also confirmed that OFC will now work out a format where the Pacific Games medal contentions is limited to the traditional countries of the Pacific."

http://www.pina.com.fj/index.php?p=pacnews&m=read&...

"The Pacific Games soccer will be used as the Olympic qualifier with New Zealand also taking part including Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) members. There are about 14 OFC member countries."

Will be interesting with Ricki Herbert coaching the PNG side.

Word round the traps is he will be replacing Wynton in PNG. Contract issues?

Attention - thread title needs updating.

Coaching the Maldives is a step up from coaching PNG u-23's I guess.

"The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in terms of both land area and population."

(NB Guam is not an independent country but a US dependency, though it has a smaller population than the Maldives)

Population 341,000 (less than Christchurch or Wellington)

A Muslim republic with a major dark side beneath the sunny tourism facade.

Tends to swing between decades of autocratic stability followed by coups and instability.

A coup overthrew the government in 1988 leading to Indian military intervention to restore order.

Decades of authoritarian stability were followed by a more liberal reforming government in 2008. A conservative Islamist backlash lead to the president resigning in 2012 under pressure from the military.

Suspension from the Commonwealth followed.

Elections have been suspended ever since.

Similar chaos and corruption has followed in Maldives football with the federation suspended by FIFA last year.

A "Normalization Committee" appointed by FIFA and the AFC is currently running the federation.

Prior to that, the federation was run directly by the government in contravention of FIFA statutes whereby federations must be democratically elected and independent of governments. Federation officials were corrupt political appointees.

In January they were ranked the 18th best team of the AFC's 46 members, ahead of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia etc. -  a great feat for a tiny country. Were ranked 40 places in the FIFA rankings above neighbour India with 1.2 billion more people.

Indeed they were then ranked above NZ (131st to NZ's 135th) 

However, with the collapse of the football federation, they have since tumbled to 39th in Asia and 177th in the world in the latest FIFA rankings

Perhaps Ricki doesn't realise the shark storm he's stepping into with the Maldives job.

Sounds even more dysfunctional than NZ Football.

Here's a post from a Maldives fan on a local website announcing Ricki's appointment:

http://www.maldivesoccer.com/s/Ricki-Herbert-joins...

Comments:

Boyko on Sep 07:

"Ricki welcome to Maldives football. You have assumed the post at a very difficult time for Maldives football. Your predecessor have left under acrimonious circumstances just under 6 months into his tenure. There was lot of bad blood between he and FAM. It has left team captain also going AWOL, his absence is not properly explained; FAM is saying different things at different times. Effectively you have divided house, if you can bring on board all these important figures to find a common ground well and good. This is an important year for Maldives football."

The Maldives lost 3-0 away to China in their World Cup qualifier last week with Ricki watching from the stands and caretaker coach Ismail Mahfooz in charge.

Ticking Time Bomb there.

Good Luck Ricki

I was watching a live stream of Maldives - China (no sound) and all of sudden there he was in the stands looking at the game.

He's got his work cut out for him.  A huge gulf in terms of ability. Maldives might be at Oceania level  - could give the Hudson AWs a good hit out....

Very bizarre choice if you ask me.

I loved Ricky for what he did for NZ and Nix football, but I don't rate him that highly as a coach.

However, he has been to two world cup and has acquitted himself well as a coach in South Africa.

You would think he could get a better gig somewhere in the world. I guess the Maldives aren't too far from NZ (compared to other places) and he'll probably enjoy the resorts and expat lifestyle when he is off duty. 

Was good enough to be on the WC technical committee........

The Maldives will be underwater in 15 years, so Ricki better get a move on.

The reforming president Nasheed instituted a plan to put aside revenue from the one billion US dollar a year tourism industry to buy land elsewhere such as in India or Sri Lanka to relocate the population in the future but he was ousted in 2012 and a corrupt military-backed government took over. So such plans came to nothing.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/11/maldives.president/index.html

I doubt if the current government really care about the future of the general population in a country where years of neglect mean 21% of the people live below the poverty line and a third of the youths use illegal drugs (the drugs come in on boats and the corrupt authorities turn a blind eye for a cut of the profits).

Ricki may have to watch out for drug use by players as it's so rife.

One reason the Maldives FA gives for forcing the previous manager, the Bulgarian Popov, to resign, was that he refused to play friendlies.

Maybe an All Whites v Maldives friendly could be on the horizon now that Ricki is Maldives manager:

http://www.maldivesoccer.com/s/Popov-a-winner-or-a-loser-5883

"Popov has been criticised for refusing to play friendly games, keeping a close contact with some players and his celebrity lifestyle.Until his departure from Maldives, no one was willing to speak about the reason for his resignation but sources close to both the coach and FAM know the management of FAM asked Popov to resign.After his departure, Normalisation Committee Chairman Shaweed opened the lid on their reasons to terminate the contract on mutual understanding. Speaking at a press conference, Shaweed said FAM provided opportunities for friendly games against teams like Singapore, Afghanistan and Oman but suspect Popov simply refused it.“But Popov refused to play these friendly games and he thought that if we lost those games it won’t be a good thing for his CV. Coach is very well connected to the public and everything went on a celebrity style. Popov doesn’t want anyone to put their finger on him with a bad result so he didn’t want to play friendly games.” Shaweed said.Many believed some players were simply untouchables and will be in his starting line up no matter how they perform in their club."

Article on the turmoil in the Maldives federation over the last decade. Events in football seem to mirror political events in the country with the first elected (non government-appointed) head of the FA in 2008 coinciding with the country's first multi-party elections that year but a return to government interference and political appointees.

Seems to be some hope of better governance after FIFA stepped in late last year and appointed the "Normalization Committee" to transition to an elected federation next month:

http://www.maldivesoccer.com/s/FAM-on-the-right-track-5697

Today's news from South Africa states Ricki is on the shortlist to be Maritzburg United's new manager. The club is currently bottom of the PSL but is a great little organisation and it'd be a great job for Ricki if he gets it.

MALDIVES THROUGH TO SOUTH ASIAN CUP SEMIS

Ricki has steered the Maldives through to the semi-finals of the bi-yearly regional championship, the SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) Cup ("Suzuki Cup") played this year in the beautiful southern Indian tropical state of Kerala. 

Two of the "Top Ten Goals of the Week" on ESPN FC on Sky TV on Monday night were scored by the Maldives during the tournament.

Ricki has them playing some attractive football - but their defence is a bit suspect at times.

The Maldives football team are known as "the Red Snappers".

They face hosts India tonight in the semi. Fortunately for Ricki, India's top striker Robin Singh (the tournament's top scorer) is out injured:

http://www.saffsuzukicup.com/news/preview-india-vs-Maldives

Maldives won two games and lost only to reigning champs Afghanistan in pool play:

http://www.saffsuzukicup.com/2015/fixtures.html

Full Match Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/user/saffchampionship/videos

The matches stream live here for free on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP4-wQH8MF9-NBwo0D09lFQ

If you check the times for goals on the match reports you can sort of figure out the highlights on the full match vids.

Thanks Pete

Ricki's Maldives lost the semi to host India 3-2

http://www.saffsuzukicup.com/news/match-report-india-3-2-Maldives

A country of population circa 350,000 (about the same as Wellington or Christchurch) versus one of 1.2 billion.

The Maldives won the South Asian championship in 2008. India have won it several times.

Holders Afghanistan thrashed Sri Lanka 5-0 in the other semi.

The final is at 2 am this morning.

Heard a rumour that Ricky was the whistleblower for the Wynne eligibility saga!

No.... really? Colour me shocked.

I don't buy it.

There was that incredibly factual and well written article on the herald that was pulled.

.@MaldivesFA part company with #RickiHerbert - @afcasiancup #ACQ2019 #AC2019 #UAE2019 READ: https://t.co/MGrUJN2oBD pic.twitter.com/70EIKETRP3

— The-AFC.com (@theafcdotcom) June 5, 2016

Spent too much time slagging off Antony Hudson and nzf on stuff and not enough time with the team? Or they bought Ben Sigmund's book and realised that he can't coach?

Or perhaps Maldives is corrupt as f*ck and they don't actually care.

Saw it printed this morning that they had been defeated in the last 11 games under RH, pretty hard to keep your job with those results.

That's not correct. 11 defeats in 19 games he's been in charge. Think there were 7 wins and a draw as well.

Anyway Maldives lost the second leg to yemen 2-0 as well.

The Maldives is corrupt as... just as likely he got fired for not playing the game.

Whilst I'm not a fan of his style, I do get the impression he's fairly principled which is not a great qualility to have in football in certain parts of the world or at FIFA HQ.

Maybe he wouldn't come to the party. Seems a bit odd as he was doing ok there. 11 defeats alone sounds bad but as Dale pointed out 7 wins too. More to this I reckon. Herbert may be many things but he doesn't like to lose.

Actually when you consider he was coaching Maldives in games against much better opposition like China or Qatar, 11 defeats is not that bad

Seems to think he quit

http://www.rickiherbertfootballacademy.co.nz/herbert-ready-for-next-coaching-challenge/

Bring back Ricki!

Has football passed Ricki by?  

I see he's thrown his hat into another ring in wanting the Mariners gig, he seems to be getting a little bit desperate now, not that the Mariners are a bad gig by any means.

I think it's good he is considering such a small and humble club. Working his way back up, starting small with the Marinades.

Everyone has to make a living. There are only so many coaching gigs out there and Ricki has obviously never shown enough to take the step up from the A-League.

Ricki did ok with what he had with the NIX and deserves some credit (as far as the All Whites go I will cut him no slack!)

He knows how to work with a budget and did help create a positive culture, both things that will be of value at the Mariners.

Seems he is being spoken to about the Mariners job - he is really managing to dine out on 2010 for a looooooong time...

His record at the NIX is better than Ernies... and even with the Maldives his ratio of wins for such a small nation is decent.

There are positives there... when we ook hard enough.

He knows the league and knows how to work within a budget. He has his faults but I'd take him over Mulvey for the job tbh, Mulvey can win the championship with the right team but we don't know if he can build a team or do well within budgetary constraints.

CCM and Ricki seems like a match made in heaven to me