Suspended Ferns coach quits NZF amid review
Heraf to help with probe into team culture
Controversial Football Ferns’ coach Andreas Heraf has resigned from his roles with New Zealand Football. Heraf has been suspended, on special leave with full pay, since June 20, when an investigation was commissioned into the Ferns’ environment and culture.
New Zealand Football announced yesterday he had resigned as technical director and Football Ferns coach and that New Zealand Football president Deryck Shaw had acceptedthe resignation.
Shaw noted that “part of the resignation is that Andreas has confirmed that he will fully participate in the review and we will look to the findings of the review to determine the outcomes around this matter”.
His suspension followed the news that at least 12 Ferns players had written letters of complaint about their coach.
The letters are believed to contain allegations around bullying, intimidation and a culture of fear.
Those players also told NZF at the time that they would not be available for the Ferns while Heraf remained in charge of the national team.
Their move sparked a wide-scale review and investigation into NZF, which is ongoing. The investigation has already led to the resignation of former CEO Andy Martin.
Heraf was a powerful figure in the sport, as NZF’s national technical director and Ferns’ coach.
He started as technical director in August last year, and by December had taken on the role of Ferns coach.
Heraf was supposed to be in charge of assessing potential candidates following former Ferns coach Tony Reading’s retirement last November, but essentially appointed himself to the role, albeit on an interim basis until the Women’s World Cup next year.
His tenure appeared to have problems from the start. There were rumours of issues on the March tour to Spain, then heavy fallout from his negative tactics and post-match comments following the 3-1 loss to Japan in Wellington last month, before the players’ shock allegations.
However, in an interview with an Austrian newspaper earlier this month, Heraf denied the allegations and said the players’ simply struggled with his different style.
“The players oppose my European style, with high standards and high expectations of professionalism, and prefer a fun and family culture with a focus on making fun videos and opening up to social networking.
“It’s not a problem for me, fun culture and professionalism is not mutually exclusive if you say that we are 100 per cent committed to what we agreed to do, just as the players pretended to be in tactics, I told them that it would not be possible to have a say in the preparation and composition of the supervisor staff.”
Heraf also claimed to Der Standard that there was a “large-scale conspiracy” but he was also confident he could clear up the allegations, and stay in both his roles. Eventually, though, the situation made that unten
able.