Game on for Whole of Football Plan

Today, John Herdman is coaching the Canadian women’s soccer team, with his family about to join him in his new home country.

Back here in little old New Zealand, a workforce of regional development officers throughout New Zealand are busy embarking on year two of implemention the plan that Herdman wrote and championed, New Zealand Football’s Whole of Football Plan (WOFP).

That won’t mean much to you unless you’re very young, or a parent of a young player, but the WOFP is the hook that New Zealand Football is hanging its hat on and which, if followed through, will shape the next generation of footballers this country produces.

Like Herdman himself, the WOFP is slick and professional.  It looks the part, and sets out a methodical, if not revolutionary, module-based structure for the game from the very young to the very old, through players, coaches, referees and club administrators.

It is impressive, if only for its ambitious scope.  Under the hood is a raft of reporting and measurement processes the likes of which football, and indeed sport generally, in New Zealand has never seen before.

The reporting is the true revolution of the Plan, which otherwise is based around some quite unremarkable football principles.  Measuring and tracking the sport at a grass roots level has never been done to this level of granularity before, and is the true task facing NZF’s football development officers throughout the country.

SPARC liked it, enough to sink more than $2m into its implementation.

That implementation is at various stages depending on where you are in the country, but most of the football family will be affected over time.  Whether you’re a young lad now playing much smaller sided games, or a teenager aspiring to the Talent Centre program that is now consistent across the country, or a coach who might now be working through the new coaching qualifications framework, you’re going to experience the WOFP somehow.

Its success or failure will very much determine not only John Herdman’s legacy, but the success of the sport in this country in fifteen years’ time, when the crop of players that have grown through it are in their 20s.

Only then will we know if Herdman was right, or came up short.

Charitable smoke and mirrors

Sadly, nobody in the football community will be surprised to learn that there is more to the new NZF Football Foundation than meets the eye.

I’ve been meaning, since its launch, to have a look at the legal document underlying the Foundation to see if the press release measured up to the reality.

No guessing what the answer is.

The rules are freely available on the Charities Commission website, so I won’t bore you too much – you can read them yourselves.  But here are a few things to bear in mind as you’re reading:

1. Billed as a multi-million dollar fund.  NZF have in fact only put $500,000 (the “NZF Fund”) into the Foundation, and only the income generated by that money (which then forms part of the “Core Fund”) is available to the Trustees for disbursement (check out clause 9.1.1).

2. The NZF Fund, which as well as the initial $500k means any money made available to the Foundation by NZF (clause 1.1) so would include any further money NZF put in, must be held on call by the Foundation (clause 9.1.1).

3. Even better, the Foundation may apply the NZF Fund money in accordance with any written request from New Zealand Football (clause 9.1.3), enabling NZF to effectively get its money out again at any time.

NZF no doubt would tell us that this is all prudent and necessary.  But, coupled with the requirement that any application for money from the Foundation be “prepared in conjunction with [your] regional federation” it does seem that NZF are really keeping pretty tight control on their money, rather than freeing up a new charity to “provide a long term boost to the game” in New Zealand.

To me, it all rather sounds more like good publicity than good for the game.

Don’t you think?

Is Browny our Beckham?

If you’d asked me on Saturday May 23rd whether a last gasp 2-1 loss to the Socceroos would be a good result for the All Whites I’d not have hesitated in saying “yes”.

If you’d thrown in the fact that we would lead 1-0 and dominate significant portions of the match I’d have been falling over myself to take that.

But if you’d told me that all that positivity would come at the expense of Tim Brown, lost to a challenge from that most unprofessional of professionals Vince Grella, I would have been hard pressed to make a decision.

Current reports are giving Brown an unspecified chance of making the World Cup following surgery on his broken humerus scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday 27/5).

Realistically though it means Brown will be out of action for at best the rest of the All Whites’ build up in Europe.  He will miss the altitude work that Austria is designed to offer, and he will not play any part in the preparatory friendlies that will establish tactics and personnel ahead of the Slovakia game on June 12th.

If he does manage to get himself to the Cup it will be a monumental effort.  And that is why we should take him anyway.

Brown is to New Zealand what David Beckham is to England.  He is a good player, with tremendous athletic ability and work rate his trademark.  But it is what he brings to the team other than his footballing ability that lifts him from a capable midfielder to an indispensible team man.

He has a presence.  A quiet, articulate confidence about him that brings others along for the ride.  And that helps others share his desire to win. 

Ben Sigmund summed it up when he said “you don’t realise how much you miss Tim until he’s not on the park.”

If, like Beckham, he is unable to play in South Africa, he is someone that any coach would want in the dressing room.  And while it might be heartbreaking for him to tread on the grass at the World Cup without being able to lace up his boots it is exactly that desire to be there, and the fact he will wear it on his sleeve, that will propel the rest of the squad.

Every team, no matter how talented, needs winners.  Weak teams like New Zealand need them in spades.  We can’t afford to leave one of our best at home, even if he can only sit in the dugout and inspire.

Suspended Moss on the pine a roll of the dice for Herbert

Glen Moss is suspended from international football for two more matches, and so cannot play the first two games of the All Whites’ World Cup campaign.

Much has been made by the Dominion Posts’s Fred Woodcock and Coen Lammers today about the risk that Ricki Herbert has taken in not selecting four goalkeepers in his World Cup squad.

And rightly so.

Popular mythology has it that Herbert can replace any goalkeeper at any time during the competition if injury rules them out.  This comforting notion would mean that, if first choice Mark Paston was to get injured in the All Whites’ first game against Slovakia, James Bannatyne would have to play the remainder of that match, but Herbert could bring in a replacement (probably Auckland City’s Jacob Spoonley, although Portland Timbers’ youngster Jake Gleeson may fancy himself an outside chance).

Popular mythology is wrong though.

Fifa’s World Cup regulations are very clear.  Teams can only replace a player on their final list of 23 players in the case of “serious injury up until 24 hours before” the team kicks off its first match. 

After that, Herbert has to live with what he has on the list.

And in our scenario, that would mean 90 minutes for big Jim Bannatyne against Italy, with only an injured Paston on the bench as cover.

A gamble, for sure.  Is it one taken because Moss is the future, or because NZF feel guilty for breaking for Christmas instead of appealing his ludicrous ban?

Clapham the bolter, but Christie the real surprise

Jeremy Christie will be doing backflips today with the announcement that he has made Ricki Herbert’s squad for the 2010 World Cup.

While Aaron Clapham is undeniably the bolter in the squad, his star has been on the rise over the last three months following a strong showing in the NZFC with Canterbury United.

Christie’s star, on the other hand, had been on the wane since being released from the Wellington Phoenix at the end of his contract, and drifting back to the NZFC to play for Waitakere United. His selection gives testament to his tenacity. Christie pushed on and picked up a full time contract with the amusingly-monikered Tampa Bay Rowdies in the third tier of US football. And this, it would seem, is what gave him the edge over other players.

Who are those “other players” who will be hurting today having missed out?

Columbus Crew veteran Duncan Oughton will be one. Oughton seems to have been overlooked on the grounds that he hasn’t been playing regularly, and is in his early thirties. Oughton’s ommission will be felt most keenly of all because this is almost certainly his last chance with the All Whites.

Aaron Scott has fallen out of favour following a loss of form. He’ll be left to rue a poor NZFC season and middling performances in recent trial matches.

Costa Barbarouses has, by comparison, performed well in camp and was tipped by many (including me) to get a spot in the squad. Herbert, it seems, has prefered to take additional depth in defence rather than another attacking option, costing Barbarouses his spot.

Both Scott and Barbarouses though have plenty of time on their side and are likely to feature heavily in future All Whites lineups.

Harder to pick than a broken nose

Who’d be Richard Lloyd Herbert?

In the short time of a two week camp you’ve got to select an All Whites team that will compete at the World Cup.

But there’s so much more to it than that.  In your hands you hold your own destiny, the destiny of players, and that of the game in New Zealand.

Your own future is on the line.  Pick a side that doesn’t travel well, that underperforms in the eyes of fans and media, and you will create a mountain for yourself to climb in the upcoming years of your own coaching career.

You hold the destiny of players.  Some of them you have known for a long time, they are friends, and their families are friends.  You’ve promised the Bahrain 18 their moment in the sun.  They can see, at the end of a long road that they’ve trod with you, their boyhood dream – the World Cup – and a payday that could help secure them financially.

And you hold the destiny of the game in your hands too.  Do you take young players, blood them for future campaigns, knowing that their inexperience might cost you and that if it does then you might set the game back in this country by years.

This is no ordinary squad selection.  Everything rests on this one.

Here’s what Smithy would do:

Transparency – who is running your game?

Today was New Zealand Football’s Annual Congress.  Did you know that?  Neither did I, and I keep my ear pretty close to the ground.

The Congress brings together I’m not sure who and sees the release of NZF’s Annual Report for the previous year (NZF work on calendar years, so this one is January-December 2009).

More on the Annual Report next time, but one thing that stood out for me is that I recognised almost none of the names of the people on the Board of New Zealand Football.

A quick scan of NZF’s pretty new website (which is a vast improvement on the old one I should say) yielded little other than the names of the Board members, so I turned to Google and what follows is a run down of the people who run football in New Zealand.

It makes interesting reading.

Frank van Hattum (Chairman): Most of us are familiar with van Hattum’s exploits as the All Whites’ goalkeeper at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, and his great ‘tache.  Since then he has worked principally for BP Oil, in various roles.  Currently he is their GM of retail operations.  He took over from the previous chairman, and Auckland Grammar headmaster, John Morris in 2008.  Prior to that he was a regular Board member.  He has previously been chairman of Capital Football in Wellington.  He is 51 years old.

Bill Moran (Vice Chairman): Moran is the head of Tax Strategy at Treasury, a senior position two steps removed from the Minister.  He is a Western Suburbs man and is also on the Board of the Ole Academy in Porirua.  It seems he played a bit in his day too, chalking up 43 appearances in Central One and Two between 1975 and 1984 for Western Suburbs predecessor Porirua United, at least if you can believe this spreadsheet.

Mark Aspden: Aspden is a commercial lawyer and recently appointed Partner at boutique Auckland firm Harisson Stone.  He was  previously General Counsel at Telstraclear.  He specialises in IT and telecommunications law.  He founded i-Scio, an IT solutions company offering contract management software.  He was previously chairman of Auckland Football.

Fred de Jong: Apart from being a former player and occasional football broadcaster (of questionable merit), de Jong is General Manager of engineering company Okuma. He is also the Vice-President of the Oceania Football Confederation.  When John Morris departed as NZF chairman de Jong was widely touted in the media as a possible replacement before van Hattum’s eventual appointment.  He is 46 years old.

Paula Kearns: Kearns is the Board’s newest member, being recently co-opted.  She is a chartered accountant with her own practice, PKCA Ltd.  In the wake of Graeme Seatter’s departure Kearns was acting CEO of NZF.  Kearns is also a trustee of the ASB Community Trust and as recently as March was CEO of Canoe Racing New Zealand.

Peter O’Hara: O’Hara is the former Chief Operating Officer of Fairfax New Zealand and is now a consultant in the publishing industry.  I could find out very little else about him.

Dougal McGowan: McGowan replaces the departing Mark Stewart.  The only South Island-based Board member, McGowan has been deputy chairman of Soccersouth and had involvement with the Green Island club and NZ Secondary Schools football.  He is assistant principal at John McGlashan College in Dunedin.

Andrew Titter: Titter is Chief Financial Officer of Downer EDI Works.  He was previously CFO at meat processor AFFCO.  Otherwise he is unknown to Google!

Who are ya?

Hello world. I’m Smithy.

Some of you will know me, and some not, but this is where I’ll be having my say about football in New Zealand. I’m lots of things – coach, administrator, player, fan, and never short of a viewpoint. Some of what I have to say might be interesting. We’ll see.

Whether you agree with me or not though, please get involved in discussion. You can do it anonymously if you want. I don’t mind.

Now, let’s blog on.