The Executive Committee (ExCo) of New Zealand Football will have a female President for the first time after the election of Johanna Wood at the national body’s Annual Congress held in Auckland today.

Mrs Wood becomes one of only several female Presidents among FIFA’s 211 member associations all over the world and is hugely honoured to have been elected to the role.

“It’s an honour to be given a role of such responsibility and I am looking forward to making a positive contribution to a sport that means so much to so many New Zealanders,” she says.

“We have gone through and are continuing to go through a period of transition. Both the ExCo and Senior Management Team, along with our membership, are committed to delivering on the recommendations of the Independent Review. We remain committed to our vision of incredible performances both on and off the field.”

Mrs Wood was elected onto the New Zealand Football ExCo in May of 2018 for a four-year term and was named as acting Vice-President last October.

In March, she was elected as an OFC Member of the FIFA Council – the strategic body that sets the vision for FIFA and global football – at the OFC Congress.

Prior to being elected onto the New Zealand Football ExCo, she had been a Central Football Federation board member since 2006 and was Chair of the organisation from 2010. Her foundations are in grassroots football governance and her continual rise has seen her elected to positons of national and now international significance.

New Zealand Football also announced a solid financial position at its Congress. With sustained high participation rates through the success of the Whole of Football Plan, the national body recorded a $65,000 deficit for 2018 after a net $700,000 transfer from the International Teams Reserve set up in 2011 to fund future international activity.  Revenue decreased by 26 percent and expenditure by 16 percent in line with the cyclical nature of the international programme.

To read the New Zealand Football 2018 Annual Report please click here

New Zealand Football Interim Chief Executive Officer Andrew Pragnell says despite a challenging year the governing body is in good financial health to continue achieving the strategic goals of more New Zealanders loving and playing football and national teams winning on the world stage.

“It is clichéd but holds true nevertheless, and never more so than in the face of the NZ Football Independent Review, that it is not the adversity itself that determines our future but how we learn and respond to that adversity,” Pragnell says. 

“We know we have work to do and are committed to implementing the 22 recommendations of the review in full. The financial position of New Zealand Football is solid and we will look to build on this in 2019.

“In reflecting on 2018, we would like to thank our seven federations, the clubs and the thousands of volunteers around New Zealand who make football happen every year.  We could not deliver the game without all of your hard work.”

It was a foundation year in terms of international activity with the All Whites competing in the Hero Intercontinental Cup, the Football Ferns in the OFC Women’s Nations Cup and the New Zealand U-17 and U-20 men and women competing at their respective World Cup qualifiers and FIFA World Cups.

The New Zealand U-17 women made history when they became the first national team from New Zealand to win a bronze medal at a FIFA event. The Football Ferns qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics when they won the OFC Women’s Nations Cup for a sixth time. The New Zealand U-17 and U-20 men both won their OFC championships to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil and FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland respectively.

New Zealand Football, in partnership with the New Zealand Professional Footballers’ Association (NZPFA), released a ground-breaking Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which attracted international headlines. The revised CBA offers four key factors for both the elite male and female footballers: pay parity, equal prize money, equal rights for image use and, most notably, parity across travel while representing New Zealand.

Domestically, the National Women’s League went to a double round which improved the profile and credibility of the competition. All four national finals in 2018 were broadcast live on SKY Sport.

One of the key developments at New Zealand Football was also the introduction of the Digital Framework. Over the past two years, the governing body had reviewed and evaluated its digital infrastructure and is proud to announce major improvements in this area for football throughout the country, as well as revolutionary enhancements to its sport administration systems.

At today's Congress, two new members were also elected to the New Zealand Football Executive Committee – Andrew Bowater and Jackie Barron – while Scott Moran was re-elected.

In addition to Johanna Wood being elected as President, Garry Carnachan was elected as Vice-President.

The Executive Committee of New Zealand Football is now comprised of the following members:

Johanna Wood (President)
Garry Carnachan (Vice-President)
Paul Cochrane
Mike Killick
Rakesh Naidoo
Scott Moran
Andrew Bowater
Jackie Barron

Article added: Tuesday 02 April 2019