Anthony Hudson (FAT Technical Director | Thailand)

So, basically nothing to see here, situation normal: NZ is behind the play in terms of the gap between amateur and professional and we have problems attracting regular international competition. #storm #teacup

It's about raising the awareness of what needs to happen, or what people think needs to happen.

Funny how a post can change, not sure why the focus shifted to Sam because he has passed his opinion. I totally agree with Hudsons comment, I have seen first hand the shark attitude of youth footballers who come straight out of 1st eleven football and think they should be playing first team football in the Northern League, and when they don't get guarantees they piss off to play first team football in lesser divisions instead of staying and fighting for a position. It will never change until the schools stop blowing smoke up their arses and these guys realise nothing is going to be handed to them on a plate and they will actually have to work hard to get somewhere. Don't get me wrong, there are some kids out there that will work hard but very few.

Exactly.  And with the head coach and the NZF head agreeing that a lot needs to change, hopefully between the 2 of them they can achieve it, or at least get it on the right path.

My issue was never about what Hudson said, just about the wisdom of saying as publicly as he did. Now it seems that him expressing his opinion is all good as far as NZF are concerned, so we can all move on.

Soley its got nothing to do with school boy football what we need in this country is a decent semi pro league with 4 imports per team and where does the money come from to support this league you will ask, well instead of  Well nix group funding the Phoenix to the tune of 5,000,000 plus a year for no return why not chuck your money into a league where these players that are sitting on there arse doing nothing will be made to train four times a week at least. Martin was always going to support  Hudson he appointed him, both should go in fact from the board down should go.

Why I took at a shot at Sam is because when he was playing (and you alluded to this yourself Bruce) was that he was exactly the player Hudson talked about. Talked big but not much of a clue and I found his comments a bit hilarious really cause Sams estimation of his own ability was never as much as every one else saw. Having said that, he has been coaching for a while now it would seem so perhaps he had the sense to see he was not cutting it and moved on to the next step so good on him and poo poos to me I guess.

I recall seeing the video that was produced (I think around 1994?) by Roger and at the time, it was good. Time has changed and I have seen it again and gone 'hmmm'. Now we have the likes of Declan Edge producing good individual footballers but can't coach a team and thats been witnessed in the WaiBOP region 1st hand by you both.

You are a bit more older school than most footballers Soley in that you played hard to win regardless and took not shark and suffered no fools. I suspect the ire of Hudson comments is Clayton Lewis (carrying a tummy but can run past everyone else) and I know you would have hammered the shark out of him for that. If my suspicion is correct that it is him, why are the guys at ACFC, whom are almost professional themselves, not trying to bang that out of him? Why is that the responsibility of the national coach to say that to him? What are the club coaches doing? This is not Mum and Dad coaches. This is coaches of the next tier down from the national team - the ASB Premiership. What does this say of coaches at this level cause its either Ramon, Milichich or the departed Shelley.

And here is where my problem lies.....

There have been a lot of people that have come out after Hudson spoke and backed him but yet in their own environment they operate in, how much are they hammering that crap out of players who are like this? Durante (or was it Sigmund) said they can see a couple of guys in their environment (and I am guessing the entire playing teams) that are cruising so why isn't Durante or Sigmund pulling these kids aside and saying 'hey, if you wanna stick around here, this is the standard we work at or fudge off back to Cap 6 or school boy football'? Please some one explain this to me cause if this is happening, then everyone should be on the same page and this would be stamped out. Why is one attitude like that being tolerated when there are kids that would kill to be a Phoenix footballer at any level?

This is the shark that the Warriors suffer from in that there is no one in that team to pull aside the lazy sharks and bang their fudgeing head against a wall and tell them how lucky they are and how quickly they can disappear and someone else with talent will replace them. Campion was the last one that did it and while Wiki was respected by everyone, he is still there and the culture is garbage so don't tell me he is a guy that leads from the front.

As much as Hudson didn't really say anything revealing from the perspective of most opinions, its the people following up (coaches) that support him and allow those players to go through their environment and not kick some ass.

It's nowhere near as simple as that, and the nix loose under 1 million a year, the rest of the funding comes from tickets, sponsors, and tv revenue.

Welnix could put that less than a million dollars into the ASB Premiership and get less of a return for NZ football than the Phoenix get. An amateur or semi pro league is not going to generate the 2.5 million that the Phoenix get from tv revenue, and the sponsors would not come on to the same tune because their message will be hitting a much smaller audience.

If the Phoenix go, the resources that are put into them will also go and will not be redistributed amongst the rest of football in NZ.

Football coach shortage paints bleak picture for England's future

• Only 2,769 English coaches hold Uefa's B, A and Pro badges

• Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/01/fo...

Think it's best not to speculate on who the player (s) are that Hudson spoke to.  It's not fair on them without the individuals being identified.

I think he was also talking about the reserves and not neccersarily the first team.

Right, I haven't really been following this too much because I agree with GG's storm in a teacup post at the top of the page. 

But just to clarify, Hudson has left experienced professionals in their mid to late 20s out of his squads for no apparent reason and is complaining that the amateur teenagers he has picked instead aren't mentally tough enough or professional enough?

Players who are talented enough and have the right attitude will make it as professional footballers. If you want a squad with professional attitudes then pick professional players.

He's right that the AWs don't play enough games but that's hardly a fudgeing earth-shattering revelation is it?

Three choices today

1: Hudson is told  to fudge off home by Martin

2: Martin fudges off home

3: The status quo remains and we lie in their dormant shark

I guess what I was trying to say was that Hudson's claim that kiwi youngsters don't have the right attitude to make it as professional footballers is based on biased data - the kids who are here without pro contracts. Clearly we have produced kids with the right attitude in recent years, or else how do you explain Thomas, Wood, Rojas etc? I'm sure all over the world there's plenty of talented kids who don't have the right attitude and squander their chance to be a pro footballer, its just that in most countries they aren't being groomed for the national team. 

A combination of our small player base and Hudson's selection policies mean that he's seeing these kids and bithing about them.

Like many, I struggle with Hudson [on one hand] saying the youth in NZ don't have what it takes to be pros and on the other hand he fails to select  number of NZ players that are pros and making a living from the game playing overseas [South Africa, Scandinavia, Asia, etc].

You're ignorant. The Phoenix are close to breaking even. Even under Terry the bill was only about $1 million a year. Welnix are doing it so that Wellington has something going for it when everything else (like me) is moving to Auckland. Why would they want to prop up a rinky-dink domestic competition?

well played by Martin today but if you believe a word of it you are a deluded as the kids Hudson refers to. Martins interviews were dripping with PR spin and he stuck to his script very tightly. To be frank, that's why he's in the CEO role and part of that role is to front media fires and put them out. 

So he's done that (well) but he didn't address the fundamental point here and that was Hudsons criticism of the lack of matches. Easy for Martin to agree with the "unprofessional" criticism of the kids but the lack of matches is a criticism of NZF. Hudson didn't say "it's really frustrating not having matches BUT Andy is doing everything he can to get them". He said "how do you expect to get to Russia when we don't have the games". He was clearly criticism NZF and NOT "repeating the same messages re matches" that Andy tried to make out.

I think Dans interview in radio sport was a good one. Martin talks about the whole of football plan and growing revenue but he doesn't have a product to sell. People massively overestimate the financial resources of NZF. The winnings from SA (remember 40% went to the players) won't last and he is right that the All Whites must be one of the most expensive teams to get matches for given the flight time restrictions during windows and how far away we are and our players are. 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think FIFA and the confederations cover a portion of travel and accomodation costs for WC quailed and Cinfed tourneys like the Asian Cup for the senior sides. 

All this stuff we are saying is not new. It was something that all the people in both jobs have had to contend with and deal with in their own ways in the past. If either or both of these guys are not up to it, and feel they are not up to it, a letter please...

The guts of these issues and working around them is: it's their jobs.

Martin is quite good in front of the media and handles himself very well.

No money to play games = No product to sell.

They always complain about no money, but it is their job to get that and create a good product.

There must be company's who likes to sponsor a decent national football team.

This is actually one of the worst pieces I've seen from a football writer. Completely ill-informed and naive.
Bizarre to think we could sell out Eden Park for a friendly against China.  Which second tier tournaments are these? And I'm really sure the FFA want to do NZF a favour after the licence stuff to grant us a home and away series. Oh and let's forget that teams coming to play in Australia more than often have a another WCQ game before or after. 

http://stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/7594127...

Apart from that I thought it was quite a good attack on the Hud

That's just terrible.

No point in being good in front of the media if all you talk is but shark and never do any work that results in anything productive thereafter

It appears we have a lot of people in positions of power who talk a good game including the coach but don't deliver thereafter 

hell even Fred could talk well. I guess that is why he is a commentator

Wasn't it reported that NZF puts in $350k for the WeeNix programe?

Hi 2ndBest,

I don't think it is too outrageous to suggest a huge Auckland crowd if a Chinese team was to tour.

You will recall that when even South Korea toured back in 1998, we got 15,000 to Mt Smart (few were cheering for Joe McGrath's All Whites as it happened). 

And the Chinese population in the likes of Howick and Torbay is considerably higher.

Well over a 100000 Chinese live in Auckland now.

Not all Chinese are from the PRC, though.

True, but 90% are.

So 1 in 3 would go to a game like this? Yeah right.

Pretty sure I made no comment about the size of the crowd, just stating a fact.

don t forget as well the large number of foreign students though it'd take good marketing to get crowds. Many young Chinese prefer basketball.

China's last two home games had less than 30k. That includes at Shenzhen which has a population of 10 million. Ain't no way 40k Chinese would attend am Eden Park game.

Forget the chinese  population in Auckland. We should see the article to bounce some ideas around, I'm pretty sure NZF is reading the forum for inspiration. Some Brainstorming for NZF. What could they do in short term to get the money and play more games? Speak openly I don't critize others ideas.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/759...

Apparently NZF will be in breach of their agreement with the players if they fail to secure a game in the next window