New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, left, and captain Ryan Nelsen reacts after their team’s 1-0 win over Bahrain in the World Cup qualifying playoff second leg soccer match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/NZPA, Ross Setford)
For a guy who has never played in Australia’s old National Soccer League, New Zealand Football chief executive Frank van Hattum is sounding very old soccer at the moment.
With most of the world looking at New Zealand’s participation in South Africa with cynical eyes, van Huttum seems to have decided to forgo professionalism in his public comments.
Shortly after the World Cup draw was made, the former New Zealand international challenged Australia to a pre-tournament friendly.
“They keep running away from us, the buggers, they’re chicken shit,” said van Hattum.
“We’ve asked but they were qualified some time ago, there’s a possibility and we’ve got a great relationship with them, they help us quite a bit to be fair and we’d love to play them.
“We’d love to get the thing going again.
“Once again, they’ll probably get beaten by the odd goal and they’ll go back to all the excuses they used to do in the old days.”
Top stuff that. It’s like someone stole van Hutton’s lunch money and he’s now having a fit in the primary school play ground. Can you imagine Ben Buckley referring to another football nation as ‘chicken shit’ even if it was jokingly? It’s just not how someone in that position conducts themselves.
All White fans should also be worried about their football chief’s idea of an ideal opponent to prepare them for their first World Cup in 28 years. New Zealand needs to come to terms with the brand of football played by their Group F opponents (Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia), not the Socceroos’ style.
While a friendly between the two nations might be a bit of fun, I certainly don’t want Pim Verbeek preparing his team for a high quality competitive tournament by playing New Zealand. That would be a huge mistake.
Still van Huttun wasn’t yet done because he soon started bragging about ‘interest’ in playing New Zealand from other nations.
“I just whispered (to the German delegation) that we play very much like Australia and they said, ‘Yeah, we know that, we might be talking to you’,” van Huttun said.
“Slovenia want a game and China want a game, Mexico want a game, so there’s lots of opportunities coming forward and we’ve got a couple of other opportunities in Europe as well.
“We’re going to the biggest event in the world so we need to really start thinking and doing things 100 per cent professionally.”
Funny you should say that Frank. Having spoken privately with high-level staff at Football Federation Australia I know that they are already in talks with a number of nations about some pre-tournament friendlies, including the MCG send-off, but you don’t see Ben Buckley running around telling everyone. It’s just not the done thing.
I’ve never been too keen on the All Whites’ World Cup qualification to begin with as I feel that New Zealand would be better off moving into Asia then just making up the numbers in South Africa.
That said, the World Cup is an opportunity for the game in New Zealand to move forward and New Zealand Football needs to seize upon the momentum from qualifying.
One way they could do so is by trying to join Asia, but the region is hardly going to keel over and let them in. For that to happen van Hutton and his counterparts at New Zealand Football need to convince Asia they have something to gain out of allowing them in (in truth I don’t think they do). These recent comments from van Huttun are hardly the way to do that.
New Zealand football needs to do everything it can to earn respect and not let itself down at the World Cup. Lets hope van Hattum’s comments aren’t going to set the tone of the country’s journey to South Africa.
NathanC
Guest
it just doesnt make sense for us to play New Zealand atm. We need to be playing African nations to prepare us for Ghana. We tend to struggle with the pace and physicality of african football. Like the article said why would New Zealand want to play us? Its basically the same reason why Australia basically never play England. While rivalries are exciting and all that playing a rival in a friendly match is pretty counter productive. The socceroos, while pretty lucky, proved they could match it with the best in the recent game against Holland (and they did thrash ireland). New Zealand need to start producing some results if they want to silence the critics. for the record i dont think either side will make the last 16 of the world cup anyway.
Fritz
Guest
NZ needs to learn it's place? I think we need to learn ours.
Steve
Guest
Some "West" Asian nations (and most of Europe) would look at many of your stated reasons (Australia joining the AFC) with "cynical eyes".
s2art
Guest
How many different ways would you have spelt Buckley?
Ora
Guest
Millister you are nothing but a provocative twat. How about you run along and give your hands a rest. You have nothing constructive to say in either of your comments in here except attack NZ. Rather childish don't you think and shows you for the pillock that you really are!
Stalker
Guest
I can see the invites out now for a Aussie side to join the Air NZ cup...wait... no - they'll be needing those players for Melbourne....
Stalker
Guest
Davidde - Let it go mate. We are not interested in this spiteful piece of writing. "Learn their place" doesnt refer to just one person. We know what you mean... Who else needs to "learn their place"??? I
Shahsan
Guest
This is exactly the sort of exclusiveness for which the Amercians have been berated for over the years eg calling their baseball championships the World Series (yes, i know there is another reason it is called the "world" series, but the commonly believed reason makes sense nevertheless). Their rationale would be that, even if they opened it up to the rest of the world, it would still come down to their teams in the end. So why waste time? "Let's just let our top teams go for it and leave the rest of the cannon fodder out of it."
Millster
Guest
Ora - don't fret for us mate; we can match you for insular hic codes going nice and strong domestically. In fact we trump you kiwis and your union, as both our examples aren't even really 'old empire' games but much more 'pure' aussie parochial idiosyncracies. We do share in your over-inflation of them though... indeed it is a national art for some on this side of the moat (particular for Victorians, I observe).
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Someone recenlty came up with a very good suggestion - that we just let the top european and south american nations go for it - and leave the rest of the cannon fodder out of it.
Millster
Guest
Ummm... I suggest you go to www.fifa.com and look up the qualification structure in the differen continents. Over 200 teams started the adventure. While you're on the FIFA site look at the current world rankings and them come back and tell me whether 13 European teams from 32 total is too many. For mine they are underdone if anything, and it makes it doubly sad for team like Ireland, Russia and the Ukraine to miss out while muppets like NZ get in.
Ora
Guest
No republican not all, I seem to recall New Zealand has a thriving domestic rugby competition something Australia can only dream of replicating.
PastHisBest
Roar Guru
Can't write about the riveting matches Dean...
Dean Pantio
Guest
What a spectacular whinge over absolutely nothing. No wonder you're a soccer correspondent.
Republican
Guest
Soccer is low scoring. It is a game that promotes the underdog upset, i.e. seeded teams being beaten by unseeded ones. NZ have every opportunity to proceed further than Oz despite their obvious lower status in the' World Game'. They have certainly benefited greatly from being included in our domestic comp as have all the manner of Kiwi codes, which they must be extremely humbled by? I have witnessed some of the Soccerroos form over recent years and must say that they don't look that flash to me, but then NZ look even less so. Cheers
PastHisBest
Roar Guru
"this site has on numerous occasions shown that the sub editors often do a poor job when selecting headings for articles" Disagree Hammer, if the subbies didn't make the headings more inflammatory then there would half the posts there are. Case in point: this very article.
Hammer
Guest
The Haka is not part of NZ football - it won't happen - nothing to do with FIFA bans
PastHisBest
Roar Guru
Where's 'here', Mahony??
Pippinu
Roar Guru
In fact, the last time Australia was required to play an Asian team for the last spot in the 32, we failed
Hammer
Guest
Trevor - that's an 100% correct analysis of FVH personality and his role at NZF ... Davidde I understand that the heading may not what you wanted (this site has on numerous occasions shown that the sub editors often do a poor job when selecting headings for articles) - but you do acknowledge that they're your words - they are a poor choice, however I'm rather heartened that fans from both sides of the Tasman deem it worthwhile to make comment on what they consider a poorly worded piece ... It's no surprise that journo's in Britain are moaning and being dismissive on NZ's place in SA - who cares - we all know that even if Europe had 20 spots that still wouldn't be enough ? ... it's worth noting that the kiwis won't be the lowest ranked team there and I'm sure the comments from the Times could be attributed a fair number of the sides attending .... as for the Irish - well tough – initially I like nearly everyone else felt sorry for them - but I'm definitely in the Roy Keane camp - they had their chances - several in fact - and didn't make - their actions since make them nothing but an embarrassment As for NZ qualification – did you feel it necessary to make a similar call when Australia qualified last time out via exactly the same process … sure it’s not ideal – but as I previously mentioned NZ have some massive benefits from being the big fish in Oceania – benefits which Australia previously enjoyed and which certainly assisted in developing Australian football – things like youth W/cup spots, Confed Cup qualification, Olympics – for both their men’s and woman’s teams … sure a group stage qualification for their senior team would be fantastic – esp to try and replicate the recent Wgtn crowd – that’s why I believe Oceania should take their half spot and bring it to the negotiating table with Asia and get into the second round Asian qualifiers