Trans-Tasman links bubble over for NZF
New Zealand’s joint bid with Australia to host the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup bid seems to have done wonders for trans-Tasman football relations.
And if a travel bubble between the two countries is in place later this year, NZ Football chief Andrew Pragnell is keen to see what fixtures might be possible.
Football Federation Australia and NZ Football will find out at the end of June whether their bid to host the World Cup has been successful.
But even if it isn’t, Pragnell is confident the process they have been through over the past 12 months has left them with a strong relationship they will both be eager to build on.
‘‘There is a growing and strengthening relationship between the two associations, so much so that irrespective of the result of the bid, I hope to see a partnership between our two associations in the years to come,’’ he said.
‘‘We are so close to each other, we do have a lot of shared football history, we’ve got a lot of stakeholders who want to see more interaction, and there are a lot of opportunities there.’’
The first men’s international match between New Zealand and Australia, in Dunedin in 1922, was the first for both countries, while Australia regards a match between the two in Sydney in 1979 as its first women’s international.
They were consistently the top two nations in Oceania until the early 2000s, but since Australia left to join the Asian Football Confederation in 2005, they have not been as close as they once were.
The New Zealand Knights and Wellington Phoenix have flown the flag for New Zealand in the Australian A-League for the past 15 years, but international fixtures between the two countries have been rare compared to other codes, especially in the men’s game.
A pair of under-23 men’s fixtures in Sydney last September were the first trans-Tasman men’s matches played in four years and after they proved popular, there is interest in seeing what else is possible.
‘‘There are real opportunities, particularly with age-grade sides, to do a lot more,’’ Pragnell said.
‘‘With both of our senior sides having a lot of professionals based in the northern hemisphere, there are logistical challenges and calendar challenges there, but we shouldn’t let that get in the way of exploring every opportunity.’’