New Zealand Football needs to be held accountable!

Well, what a week it has been. As a Wellington Phoenix supporter I am emotionally drained as I battle the many number of different feelings which has overcome me in the last seven days. Something I am sure many fellow Nix fans can identify with. On one hand, it is nerve wrecking to think that our professional and well run club might be gone within a few months and be nothing more than a few pages of ink in the history records.

Yet on the other hand, the amount of support from fans, players, managers and CEO's on both sides of the Tasman has been a ray of much needed sunshine and really shows the comradery at club level within the league.

However, one entity which has left a bit to be desired is New Zealand Football. Although they have publicly come out stating support for the Phoenix, there has been pretty much bugger all else. As we all know, actions speak louder than words.

While the FFA clearly work to their own personal agenda, they are not total muppets. It is no coincidence that a press release was published by the FFA as the Phoenix were scheduled to play two away games in a row. The most obvious and effective way for the club to hit back is with bums on seats and the FFA have taken away the ability for the club to do that, at least not immediately anyway.

So during this time, NZF need to strike while the iron it hot and make some big plays. I guess the nature of this post can be summed up with one question. Would it be harder for New Zealand to make the FIFA World cup by joining the AFC or by having no professional club based in NZ? I think the answer is fairly obvious..

The main problem with New Zealand being registered under the OFC is that no income that New Zealand Football makes from the likes of player registration at the amateur level  go to the AFC or more to the point... downstream to the FFA.

Technically speaking this is where the majority of a football association’s income to pay their administrators comes from. So although the FFA seem to have their own person agenda of putting as much cash in their own pocket which goes against the non-for-profit nature of how a football association should be run, to some extent I can see their point in questioning what a football club in New Zealand is giving to the A-League.

This is not to say in any means that the Wellington Phoenix are a liability. As a team replacing the Nix out of Australia won’t magically grow the number of registered amateur players in Australia. In fact I believe the number of amateur players taking up the game in New Zealand is currently growing at a faster rate than that of Australia and this in no part thanks of course to… Wellington Phoenix!

By introducing an academy and plans to introduce a female team, the Phoenix are doing a lot for New Zealand football and are essential product of the NZF, in fact I would go as far as to say they are more essential to the future of the game in New Zealand than the All Whites!

All in all, the NZF owes a lot to the Wellington Phoenix. It is time for the NZF to open their eyes and see what they are about to lose and to fight tooth and nail to ensure it doesn't end up that way!

#Savethenix