For the All Whites, the priority for New Zealand Football is planning for the next four-year cycle with meaningful games and a solid structure in place to continue the development of this exciting generation of talent.

Following the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifying cycle, New Zealand Football commissioned an independent campaign de-brief, as has been undertaken for previous major national team activity including most recently the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019. The objective of the de-brief is to analyse what went well and could be improved from the campaign, identifying recommendations to take into future national team activity. The de-brief has been conducted by interviewing a wide selection of players and staff involved in the campaign.

Following completion of the de-brief, scheduled for mid-October, we look forward to sitting down with Danny Hay to discuss his future and how to continue the development the team leading into the next Olympic campaign and FIFA World Cup qualifying cycle.

Following the return to international action after Covid-19 restrictions, it has been great to see the All Whites playing in every possible FIFA match window. As the team unfortunately did not qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2022, our players do not automatically get released by their club sides in November as it is not an official FIFA window for non-World Cup qualified sides. We are therefore committed to playing in the first available official window which, because of the schedule changes required to play the FIFA World Cup in November, is March 2023. New Zealand Football are already in advanced discussions with the opponent for this window. The team will also be looking to play in every subsequent official FIFA window.

It was brilliant to see nearly 35,000 Kiwis at Eden Park last weekend. It is the long-stated aim of New Zealand Football to be bringing our national sides home more regularly and the record breaking crowd at Eden Park is just the start of having all our teams play in Aotearoa on a more consistent basis.


Article added: Saturday 01 October 2022