Heraf must change negative thinking or resign
New Zealanders hate being told they can’t do something. Big mountains. Small atoms. Anti-nuclear. Yacht races. Golf tournaments. Kiwis have a proud history of innovation and imagination to overcome the odds, of fierce stoicism in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.
New Zealand Football technical director Andreas Heraf needs to adopt this mentality, or resign immediately.
The Austrian stunned football fans on Sunday with both the insipid football he forced the Football Ferns (he is also Ferns coach) to play in a 3-1 loss to Japan in Wellington and his postmatch comments where he said New Zealand will ‘‘never have that quality to compete with Japan’’.
His reason for the terrible football, in which the Ferns had just 27 per cent possession? He said it was better that than losing 8-0. He said conceding three goals was OK.
His reason for thinking New Zealand couldn’t compete with Japan? He said New Zealand is a small country with players not in the same leagues as Japan, or other countries for that matter.
Do they have the same mentality in Panama? Population four million, about to play at their first World Cup. Veteran goalkeeper Jaime Penedo said they are not afraid and want to dance with the likes of England and Belgium.
Heraf’s comments sparked fury from football fans, and rightly so.
It was the first time Heraf had made such assertions publicly, but a bad smell has hung over him since he arrived in August due to what he was said to be saying behind closed doors about football in New Zealand.
Rumours wafted in the air like that from a meatworks on a windy day, but it wasn’t until he pulled back the curtain on Sunday that the source of the stench was revealed: a steaming pile of football excrement.
While it was the worst display by a national team in recent memory, it was even more concerning when you line it up with talk he has been telling the same things to the under-17s and under-20s teams.
The next generation of New Zealand footballers are being told they’re not good enough, that they will have to play defensive football to achieve anything.
That goes against everything NZF has hung its hat on over the past seven years through the Whole of Football plan. The plan’s curriculum aimed for New Zealand to develop a ‘‘proactive, effective, possessionbased style of play’’.
Academies and clubs have tried to develop players to fit this model. Now Heraf wants to send New Zealand football back to the dark ages.
NZF should have seen this coming. He showed up with the same negative mindset when coaching the Austrian under-20s at their World Cup in New Zealand in 2015. They lost 2-0 to Uzbekistan in the round of 16.
NZF chief executive Andy Martin, who was on the panel that hired Heraf, and his board need to be held accountable for this mess.
Unless Heraf changes his ways, or resigns, a rebellion is needed to show he can’t drag the game down.
A message needs to be sent to Heraf: change your ways or get out.