Chris Wood and his All Whites teammates have earned qualification to next year's Fifa World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Since 1930, only two New Zealand teams have featured on the biggest football stage – in 1982 and 2010.
Now there will be three.
The All Whites have qualified for the 2026 Fifa World Cup after a 3-0 win over New Caledonia in front of a home crowd at Eden Park.
Newstalk ZB Weekend Sport host Jason Pine told The Front Page the atmosphere was electric.
" The World Cup is widely regarded as the pinnacle of football, but also it’s one of the big sporting events in the world. It creates a profile. It puts the game front and centre of the consciousness of not just the sporting public, but the general public here.
“As far as New Zealand Football is concerned, it’s a financial windfall also because teams that make the World Cup get quite a substantial payout from Fifa, which they can then reinvest into the game at all levels, not just into the elite sides,” he said.
Pine puts our successes on the world stage down to the advent of professional clubs in New Zealand.
“The Wellington, Phoenix coming into existence in 2007 led, I think anyway, directly towards qualification in 2010. Yes, it’s been a little bit of time between drinks since then, but if you look at the current squad, I think this is as good a roster as we’ve ever had,” he said.
Auckland FC joined the current A-League season last year. They’ve won 12 games out of 20, with just two losses. The team sits comfortably atop the table and could become the first to win the cup in their debut season.
" They’ve recruited some very good players. You’re allowed five overseas players in the A-League and all five of their overseas players have been hits... The rest of the team are mainly Kiwis and I think that’s helped in gaining a connection with the fan base. So on the field, I think they’re just a very, very good squad. But the way that they have engaged the Auckland football community and made an Auckland FC game the place to be... They’ve really got something special going there," Pine said.
Pine said there has been talk of a third A-League team from New Zealand added to the mix, potentially spawning in Christchurch.
“There are 13 teams at the moment. They’re on record saying they wanna get to 16 or 18 to really flesh out their season, and make it more attractive for broadcasters. And if you look at untapped markets, there are a few in Australia. There’s no men’s team in Canberra for example.
“Christchurch I think would be a welcome addition to the A-League. What Auckland FC has done is proven that any doubt about another New Zealand team was completely unfounded. In fact, in many ways, Auckland FC is the success story on and off the pitch.
“It seemed fanciful a few years ago when they were trying to kick Wellington Phoenix out. They didn’t want any New Zealand teams – so now to be talking about the possibility of three, I think shows how far we’ve come,” Pine said.
Football is one of the world’s biggest sports with an estimated 3.5 billion fans globally.
A 2023 national survey by School Sport NZ found that football is the fifth-biggest sport with kids here – still a few thousand behind netball, basketball, volleyball, and rugby.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about the All Whites and the future of football in New Zealand.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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