Five shortlisted for Ferns coaching job
The Football Ferns’ head coach shortlist features mixture of experienced and up-and-coming, and local and foreign, coaches.
Current Ferns assistant Gareth Turnbull and former assistant Aaron McFarland are the Kiwis on the five-strong list. They are joined by former New Zealand women’s under-17 coach Jitka Klimkova, former Australia Matildas coach Tom Sermanni and a female French coach.
New Zealand Football started advertising for Andreas Heraf’s replacement in mid-September after the Austrian resigned at the end of July while on special leave following 13 complaints from players about his conduct and the environment he fostered, made in the wake of the Ferns’ 3-1 loss to Japan on June 10.
The new coach will be contracted through to the end of next June’s World Cup in France. The Ferns need to win the OFC Nations Cup next month to qualify for that event, but they will be heavy favourites, having never lost to Pacific Island opposition.
The five will now go under the microscope of the selection panel, which will include interim NZF chief executive Andrew Pragnell, interim technical director Andy Boyens, former players and coaching staff, a PFA representative, and a High Performance Sport NZ representative.
Turnbull, 33, is the coach with the most recent experience in New Zealand women’s football, but that might count against him given it was under Heraf, who employment lawyer Phillipa Muir found in her report last week had bullied and harassed Ferns players.
Several Ferns were understood to be unwilling to play for him if he got the job.
Turnbull also leads the Football Ferns development programme and is the New Zealand women’s under-20s coach.
McFarland, 46, was Tony Readings’ assistant from 2013-2016 before taking up the role of Central United’s men’s head coach for the past two winter seasons, as well as Auckland City’s youth team coach in 2017. Prior to his assistant role at the Ferns, he was the under-20 women’s head coach.
Klimkova, a 44-year-old from the Czech Republic, has put together an impressive coaching CV.
She started out with her home nation’s under-19 team in 2009, before taking over Canberra United in Australia’s W-League from 2011-2013, winning both the regular season and grand final in her first season in charge. After missing the playoffs in her second season in charge, she moved across the ditch to take the New Zealand under-17s for a year.
The United States’ women’s programme then came calling in 2015, where she has served as the under-19 and under-20 coach for the past three years.
Sermanni, a 64-year-old Scot, is the most experienced coach on the list.
He took the Australia Matildas in two stints from 1994-96 and from 2005-12. He has also coached the United States women’s team from 2013-14.
Most recently, he coached the Orlando Pride for three seasons in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League, achieving a best finish of third in 2017. He left my mutual decision at the end of the season in September.
Whoever gets the job has immediate work to do ahead of the Nations Cup.