No shortlist yet for All Whites coach, but NZF confident

The new All Whites assistant coaches are in place, but there is no shortlist for the head coach role yet.

New Zealand Football technical director Andreas Heraf is confident there will be an appointment in time for the team to play in the next international window, which runs from March 19 to 27.

Once a list has been drawn up – Heraf has no specific number of candidates in mind – a panel will be formed to conduct final interviews, consisting of himself, chief executive Andy Martin, and at least one other person.

‘‘It should be a list of a few people who are really interesting to us and who could be the right one for us,’’ said Heraf of the makeup of the shortlist.

‘‘With these guys we will have our final interviews with a panel to figure out who will be the best one.’’

Whoever the new coach ends up being, they will have former Wellington Phoenix coach Des Buckingham and Team Wellington coach Jose Figueira as their assistants.

Buckingham and Figueira were named as head coaches for the men’s under-20 and under-17 teams on Friday, and in addition to those roles, they will be part of the senior team setup.

It is a curious process, appointing assistants before a head coach, but Heraf said it was part of NZ Football’s plan to provide development opportunities.

‘‘We made the decision that we want an All Whites coach who knows and will accept that he will work with young ambitious coaches from the organisation.

‘‘That’s a clear requirement. It’s a clear pathway that we’ve decided to have - our age-group coaches with the All Whites coach to learn from him, be with him, support him.

‘‘I’m really convinced that it’s a good solution and they will work as a good team.’’

The head coach appointments for the men’s age-group teams were two of seven new hires announced on Friday. In addition, there were assistants for those teams, an assistant for the Future Ferns Development Programme and the women’s under-17 and under-20 teams, a head of strength and conditioning and a head of performance analysis.

Heraf said having those people in place would now allow him to ‘‘focus 100 per cent’’ on the All Whites vacancy.

‘‘The sooner the better, of course, but we won’t rush ourselves. We’re not in a hurry, because we want to make a clear and good decision, and good decisions need a little bit of time.

‘‘The list is getting shorter, it’s not that we have hundreds at the moment, like we had at the beginning.

‘‘Hopefully, we can come to a final decision between midfebruary and the end of February.’’

The new All Whites coach would need time to organise things for their first window in charge and Heraf is set to be in Spain coaching the Football Ferns for a pair of friendlies in an international window that runs from February 26 to March 6.

An appointment before Heraf departs on that trip would appear to be an ideal outcome, and he agreed it would be good to have it done by then.