Retiring skipper ‘fed up’

‘‘Fed up’’ New Zealand women’s football team captain Abby Erceg has hit out over a lack of support from the national body in announcing her international retirement.

Erceg, who plays for the North Carolina Courage in the US National Women’s Soccer League, is the country’ most-capped player having turned out 130 times and scored six goals for the Football Ferns.

The 27-year-old defender confirmed on Tuesday she would be stepping down from representing New Zealand following the Football Ferns participation in the Cyprus Cup early next month.

Erceg called the circumstances around her retirement decision ‘‘unfortunate and unfavourable. I’ve shaped my life around this game and committed a lot to it,’’ she told RNZ.

‘‘You get to a point in your career where you can’t justify the amount of effort you put in for what you are getting back, I’m getting to that point now.

‘‘It is bit tough and a bit sad to have to do it, not because it’s a physical thing and you can’t keep up, you are just at point where you are fed up and have had enough.’’

After making her debut for the women’s national team in 2006, taking over as captain in 2014, Erceg has gone on to a successful professional career with a number of overseas clubs.

While the security that has offered has made juggling her club and country commitments easier, she said the same is not the case for New Zealand-based players.

Erceg noted they had been battling to change that situation for ‘‘pretty much’’ her entire 11 to 12-year Ferns career.

‘‘What we trying to put together now is something that allows players to be in an environment where they can not only perform but live, pay the bills and do what most people do in a working environment,’’ she told RNZ.

‘‘There comes a point where if you’re going to commit as much time as we been asked to and perform at the level we do, it is not just about the passion. We can’t maintain the standards we’re being held to without the necessary input to perform at that level. It gets to a point where players break down essentially.’’

Ranked 19th in the world, the Football Ferns are funded by High Performance Sport NZ but that amount has dropped to $500,000 per-year over the next three years after the team were knocked out at the group stage of both the 2015 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. Erceg, though, indicated that even the previous level of funding had not been enough to prevent the stress experienced by the New Zealand-based players. She estimated around half of the current squad were in that position and said it not only affected the moral of the team but also create a sizeable gap in the ability of the two sections of the team. The response from NZ Football to the situation had been consistent but frustrating, Erceg said to RNZ.

‘‘It’s always money, that’s the thing I’ve heard the most is we can’t afford it. That’s really hard to accept as a player when your organisation for the past eight years have been in surplus.’’