It took more than 24 hours for the national body’s chief executive Andrew Pragnell to front media on the matter, telling Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB that Klimkova left on her own terms.
“She’s put it in pretty hard yards, she’s achieved some things we’ve never achieved before, she’s transitioned the team in a way that we haven’t seen over the past 10 years, she felt her time’s up,” Pragnell said.
However, Pine challenged Pragnell’s comment, referencing the months leading up to this included an employment-related investigation that resulted in Klimkova opting to temporarily stand down ahead of the Paris Olympics.
“There’s obviously different views on that,” Pragnell said. “Players have an impact on this without a doubt.
“In a squad of 23 people, there’s 23 different views. I would say we’ve got some pretty diverse views amongst the squad.
“It would be fair to say there’s some players obviously who weren’t gelling [with Klimkova], there’s some players who were. There’s a player dynamic that’s always complex.
“There were challenges around communication style, I think there are certainly players who weren’t gelling.”
In June, Klimkova missed New Zealand’s international friendlies against Japan in Spain due to an investigation into what the national body labelled as an employment-related matter.
Despite being cleared to lead the team at the Paris Games in July, she chose to stand down for the Olympics due to concerns in relation to the team environment, her wellbeing, and a restorative process that had not been completed.
Michael Mayne stood in as interim head coach for the pinnacle event.
Since taking charge of the Football Ferns in 2021 on an unprecedented six-year contract, Klimkova oversaw 45 matches with the New Zealand women’s side. Of those games, the Football Ferns won 10, with eight draws and 27 defeats.
Klimkova oversaw New Zealand’s group-stage exit from the 2023 Women’s World Cup on home soil. However, Pragnell said that the 1-0 victory over Norway at the tournament was massive for the organisation as it marked the Ferns’ first-ever win at the tournament.
“The reality is she made a breakthrough that we haven’t been able to make - it’s her leadership that did it.”
Pragnell said the intent was to see Klimkova return to the role after she stood down in for Paris 2024.
“We did an independent employment investigation - there was nothing in that investigation that told me that she was not fit to be coach.
“We worked closely with the Players Association and felt that it was right for her to be returning and that actually a bit of a restorative process would enable that to happen.
“At the end of the day, I still felt that there was still disruption in that playing environment. I was concerned for her coming into that environment, that it was going to be too quick, and prioritised the team [and] minimised the disruption going into the team.
“We talked it through with her and she agreed, actually, this was not the right time to be stepping in.”
Another big talking point of Klimkova’s tenure was the lengthy contract that she signed in 2021 - which Pragnell explained was no mistake.
“We got caught with Covid and the way the Olympics got delayed, and it was mid-cycle. The reason for going with six is fundamentally we realised that there was going to be a huge transition.
Outgoing Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimkova. Photo / Photosport
“Whoever’s going to transition us at that stage is going to have their work cut out. I actually tend to favour longer-term contracts in general.”
When recruiting Klimkova’s successor, Pragnell said the contract will likely be through to the end of the 2027 World Cup, and this time they’ll look for someone who can fit into a campaign.
“Rather than someone who is going to come in, bringing in all their own staff and start planning fresh on their own,” he said.
In Friday’s announcement, NZF said Klimkova would stay on working for the next six months, supporting the high-performance department and national team activity.
“We’re going into the next few months with some really robust campaign planning,” Pragnell said. “What I’m not keen to do is throw the baby out with the bath water and that’s what, to be quite frank, we’ve got a history of doing.
“A coach moves on, a new coach comes in completely new ideas, changes everything, brings in new staff and you start from scratch.
“We’ve actually got some really good institutional knowledge in Jitka, in the building and team staff and the playing group.”
Pragnell says she won’t be on the grass coaching the Football Ferns but will be involved in technical analysis and support for other age-group teams.
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast, and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.
