Halbergs nomination controversy about ‘profile’

OPINION: As far as New Zealand Football is concerned, there’s no such thing as bad publicity – or is there?

Earlier this month, the governing body raised a few eyebrows when it nominated the All Whites for team of the year at the Halberg Awards, on the back of three wins in 12 games, against the might of Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

Chief executive Andy Martin signed off the nomination, and this week offered an explanation for it.

‘‘We decided they’d hit all of the targets we’d asked them for in the region,’’ he said.

‘‘The [World Cup qualifying playoff] against Peru was a pretty top result for our team, so we thought why not, we’ll give it a go.

‘‘It’s a long list. Are they going to win it? Unlikely. Are they going to get shortlisted? Unlikely.

‘‘But it’s profile for football and it gets you guys talking about football, which is great.’’

When it was put to him that it had mostly got people talking about how silly it made his organisation look, Martin said: ‘‘People are entitled to an opinion and it’s great to have you talking about football.’’

As Martin suggested, the All Whites were never going to win the award, nor were they ever going to be shortlisted, which makes this a relatively minor misstep in the grand scheme of things.

This is not like the time in 2016, where NZ Football cost the country’s only professional club an important mid-season signing, because a staff member didn’t have internet access over a long weekend.

And it’s definitely not like the time in 2015, where NZ Football allowed players to play for national teams while ineligible, a blunder that cost a promising generation the chance to compete at the Rio Olympics.

But it is another move that makes it hard to have confidence in the governing body.

Before he explained why NZ Football had nominated the All Whites for the Halberg awards, Martin suggested his organisation was damned whatever it did.

‘‘It’s interesting, isn’t it,’’ he said.

‘‘Because two years ago when we didn’t put nominations in, we were criticised for not putting names forward.’’

It’s not clear what Martin was referring to here.

A look back over the Halberg nominations since he took over the reigns of New Zealand Football in 2014 reveals no glaring omissions in the major categories.

In 2014, no nominations were made to begin with but three late ones were made after Auckland City’s third-place finish at the Club World Cup that December. . In 2015, the only nomination was Winston Reid for sportsman of the year.

In 2016, Chris Wood was nominated alongside Reid, and Abby Erceg was also nominated for sportswoman of the year.

This year, Wood has been nominated again, as has Ali Riley for the sportswoman award.