I'm willing to give NZF the benefit of the doubt here
Agree with your post except this
Unfortunately these guys have gone way beyond the point where they deserve any benefit of doubt imo
By giving them the benefit of the doubt I mean that the thing happened by incompetence and, despite all the problems they have had with FIFA and FIFA's unbending interpretation of their rules, thought that it wouldn't be a big deal and therefore told the Phoenix not to worry about it. The other alternative is that either the Phoenix misled the player and got him over here on false pretenses just to assess him, or that NZF misled the Phoenix about the status of the loan agreement in the hope that something, anything would happen.