NZF happy to remain ambitious

New Zealand Football felt it had no choice but to withdraw the All Whites from their planned friendly with world No 1 Belgium next month.

But as they officially put that match on ice this weekend, chief executive Andrew Pragnell was clear they had no regrets about trying to make it happen.

There had been no cost to the organisation, other than manhours, he said, and the organisation would continue to try to make matches happen amidst Covid-19 – starting with the All Whites-England one that is scheduled to take place in November.

‘‘I think what it shows is an intent to play, and we won’t stop doing that.

‘‘It’s all very well to sit back and go, ‘oh, look, Covid, we can’t play’, but we’re actually going to continue to keep trying to play and to overcome whatever barriers are put in front of us.

‘‘It’s ambitious, but we want the team to be playing as much as possible in the buildup to the intercontinental playoff [scheduled for June 2022] and so we’ll continue to try to do that as the piece of the jigsaw keep moving.’’

The decision to withdraw from the Belgium fixture was taken once border restrictions and quarantine requirements in Europe made it impossible for coach Danny Hay to assemble a suitable squad in Brussels.

Discussions are understood to have taken place about a second match during the window, against Mexico on neutral territory, but that fixture was never announced publicly and has been canned as well.

‘‘In the last couple of weeks, it’s become apparent that there was a risk of not actually being able to assemble the basics of a squad in Brussels or get them back [to their clubs, without having to quarantine],’’ Pragnell said.

Another factor was not wanting to assemble a playing squad – and a staff – that was drastically different to what it would be under normal circumstances, hampering the team’s ability to build on their first – and only – window under Hay last November.

‘‘If we got into a situation where the playing squad wasn’t as strong as it should be or people were feeling uncomfortable with the lack of staff, you would actually begin to affect the culture,’’ Pragnell said.

‘‘Something that Danny has been really good at off the back of Ireland and Lithuania – and obviously a lot of it’s been online – has been building some commitment about what we’re going to try to achieve over the next couple of years.

‘‘I think if we were coming in understrength or ill-prepared, it would have the potential to undermine that.’’

Six weeks out from the November international window, where the All Whites are set to play England at Wembley Stadium and are hoping to secure a second fixture – the United States are understood to be the potential opponent – it is hard to see how the travel situation will differ from where it is now.

Pragnell said they were closely monitoring the situation in the UK, where the number of Covid-19 cases has risen rapidly in recent weeks.

‘‘Covid is moving so fast that it would be speculative to say it’s going to be easier or better [than trying to play in Belgium].

‘‘The biggest variable in all of it is new government regulations which will be driven primarily by the rise or fall of Covid.’’