Kiwis Coach forced to Put Club Before Country

November 20th, 2009 | by: Craig |

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wc_draw Wellington Phoenix and New Zealand All Whites coach Ricki Herbert has been told he will not be going to South Africa on December 4 for the World Cup draw. Despite FIFA requesting all head coaches attend the gala event, the NZFC is hopeful that no one knows who we are and as such, will not be missed.

The Phoenix have a game against Melbourne Victory the night before and club owner Terry Serepisos has insisted that his head coach put the needs of the club ahead of wining and dining with the big wigs of world football.

Ricki has agreed that he likes receiving a pay-check each week and would like to continue to do so. The NZFC has conceded that they are disappointed that NZ will be the only country whose head coach is not at the draw, but Terry is pretty scary and they don’t want to upset him any more than absolutely necessary.

There is probably very little value in Herbert attending the draw, apart from being able to check out the stadiums the All Whites will be playing in, the training facilities they’ll be training in and the hotels they’ll be celebrating their glorious victories in, but this does highlight a the major problem for the All Whites going forward. The NZ National team don’t play enough games often enough for them to be able to pay a full time head coach. The Phoenix do pay a full time head coach, and expect him to work full time trying to turn the Phoenix into the Manchester United of the South Pacific.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I hope somebody within the NZFC is trying to think of one.