Erceg retires again, quietly
One of New Zealand’s greatest footballers has retired from the international game for the second time in 15 months, but is not saying why.
Veteran Football Ferns defender and former captain Abby Erceg’s decision was revealed yesterday, when coach Andreas Heraf named his squad for the friendly match against Japan in Wellington on June 10.
Erceg and Heraf have provided conflicting versions of events surrounding her absence from a match on the Football Ferns’ last tour in March. It has also been revealed a long-serving member of staff resigned after that tour.
When contacted by Stuff yesterday, Erceg said she did not wish to comment. It is believed she is concerned that if she does, she could be fined under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement NZ Football and the Professional Footballers Association unveiled last week.
Heraf said Erceg told him of her decision when he checked in with players following the Ferns’ pair of matches against Scotland in Spain at the start of March.
‘‘Abby came back to me and said she will retire again because she was not feeling that happy coming back again and she wants to focus on her [club] team in the USA.’’
In Spain, Erceg played no part in the first of two losses to Scotland, but started and played the full 90 minutes in the second.
After the second match, assistant coach Gareth Turnbull said Erceg was kept on the bench in the first match as she was ill early in the tour and unable to train, an explanation Heraf repeated yesterday.
On March 10, shortly after the Scotland matches, Erceg tweeted: ‘‘I wasn’t ill nor injured during the first game and that isn’t why I didn’t play.’’ Yesterday, she did not wish to expand on that statement.
Asked what he thought of her statement, Heraf said: ‘‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask her. She was on the bench, we took her on the bench, because she was fit, she feels better, but she wasn’t with us in the training sessions all week, so there was no reason to let her play.’’
Heraf said he had had no arguments or disagreements with Erceg in Spain.
Erceg retired for the first time last February, speaking out about a range of issues, in particular NZ Football’s support for her amateur, domestic- based team-mates, which stands in stark contrast to her silence the second time around.
The revelation of her second retirement comes almost a week after multiple players voiced concerns to Stuff that an unprofessional culture was developing in the Football Ferns under Heraf – claims he rejected at the time.
One of those players was initially willing to speak on the record, but later sought to retract her comments, after the PFA cautioned her there could be a hefty fine for speaking out, under the new CBA that was announced last Tuesday, which gave the Football Ferns equal working conditions to the All Whites.
Erceg is not the only long-standing member of the Football Ferns’ setup to have finished with the team following March’s matches in Spain.
Manager Claire Hamilton resigned following the tour, having been in the role since 2013. Yesterday, she said she was not in a position to comment.
Asked if Hamilton had left because of changes to the Football Ferns’ environment under Heraf, the coach said: ‘‘Maybe.’’