It has been a challenging year for New Zealand Football, but there are many positives to reflect on and I believe the sport is in a good place heading into an exciting 2019.

I came into the role as Interim Chief Executive Officer at the end of July with the organisation in a time of transition. The NZF independent review outlined that there is work to do from New Zealand Football and the Executive Committee and Senior Management Team are committed to implementing all 22 recommendations of this review and have an action plan in place to deliver on this. There are also a number of highlights to reflect upon from both the High Performance and Community sectors of our sport from 2018.

Most notably the performance of our U-17 women at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay. These young women, led superbly by head coach Leon Birnie, dared to dream and captured the hearts of the nation with their heroics on the world stage. Their quarter-final win over Japan on penalties – with Anna Leat saving a penalty and then scoring the winning one – was one of the best moments of the sporting year. To finish off the tournament with a bronze medal, the first New Zealand national team to achieve this feat, at a FIFA World Cup was an extraordinary achievement.

The Football Ferns regrouped under new coach Tom Sermanni to dominate the OFC Women’s Nations Cup in New Caledonia. It was an important tournament for the team for a culture rebuild and qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. They went through undefeated scoring 43 goals for and conceding none, beating Fiji 8-0 in the final. We are all very excited to see the team look to make history in France in 2019 where they will meet the Netherlands, Canada and Cameroon in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Their confirmed preparation matches against Australia, Korea Republic, Argentina and the USA means we have a lot of great international football to look forward to in early 2019.

There was great success for both the U-17 and U-20 men in their respective OFC Championships. Des Buckingham led the U-20s to a hard-fought 1-0 victory in the OFC U-19 Championship final over hosts Tahiti. They will compete at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland in June. Soon after, Jose Figueira took his young men to a successful defence of their OFC U-16 Championship. It wasn’t easy. The Kiwis came up against the Solomon Islands, who had beaten them 5-0 in pool play, and defeated them 5-4 on penalties after a scoreless draw. They will compete at the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru in October.

The All Whites rebuilt in their first year under new head coach Fritz Schmid. They went down 1-0 to Canada in Spain and then backed it up with a strong performance at the Intercontinental Cup in India in June. A youthful line-up had consecutive wins over Chinese Taipei and India, the All Whites' first back-to-back wins against non-Oceania opposition in 12 years. We hope to see the All Whites back in action early in 2019.

New Zealand were represented at the FIFA World Cup in Russia by referee Matt Conger and assistant referee Simon Lount who furthered their reputations on the world stage. Sarah Jones was also an assistant at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. Sarah and Anna-Marie Keighley will represent New Zealand at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.

Earlier this year, New Zealand Football and the New Zealand Professional Footballers' Association (NZPFA) celebrated a milestone announcement with a revised Collective Bargaining Agreement for professional players. This announcement attracted worldwide interest and it will be great for both male and female players going forward.

There were plenty of important milestones from the community game in 2018. The National Women’s League went to a double round for the first time, which was well received by the players and added further credibility to the competition. For the first time we launched a Female Coach Scholarship Programme. The aim of the programme is to grow the number of female coaches within the advanced coaching pathway.

The Coach Development Programme in New Zealand is world-class. More than 6,000 coaches are now developed per year through pathway courses or informal workshops.

We welcomed on board the NZ Football Foundation as a sponsor of the Kate Sheppard Cup, the competition formerly known as the Women’s Knockout Cup. The Future Ferns Domestic Programme (FFDP) continued to deliver outstanding results, seven players have now gone from the FFDP to professional contracts around the world.

For the second time, all four of our finals from our domestic competitions – the ISPS Handa Chatham Cup, the Football Foundation Kate Sheppard Cup, the ISPS Handa Premiership and the National Women’s League – were all live on SKY Sport. The ISPS Handa Premiership continues to grow in quality and the match of the round is broadcast every week.

Futsal continues to go from strength to strength. The fastest growing sport over the last six years in New Zealand secondary schools has a huge presence in the sports community and its national competitions will be part of an exciting re-brand in 2019 to reflect the exciting, fast-paced nature of the sport.

In 2018, New Zealand Football and the federations launched the Digital Framework which was the largest technological change for football and indeed of all sports in New Zealand. The Digital Framework has been developed as the platform that links all facets of football development, customer facing and internal operations into one centralised system.

The Player Welfare team, with great support from ACC SportSmart, have delivered a more comprehensive Fit4Football programme in 2018 and we look forward to providing even more service to our members with the support of our seven federations around New Zealand. 

On a sad note, we lost several members of the football community in 2018 including former New Zealand Football Chief Executive Officer Bill MacGowan.

To all of our partners in football, our federations, the national league clubs, the NZPFA, our sponsors and funders, and in particular all those who volunteer and give their time and passion to football, thank you very much for your support and helping to deliver football in 2018. We look forward to a successful year in 2019.

Kind Regards
Andrew Pragnell
New Zealand Football Interim Chief Executive Officer

Article added: Wednesday 19 December 2018