Football: NZF won't rule out more action on eligibility

Deryck Shaw. Photo / Stephen Parker

A lengthy and costly appeals process may be far from over - but New Zealand Football is adamant the ordeal has seen time and money well spent.

The national body yesterday announced it had lost its appeal against New Zealand's disqualification from the Pacific Games, seemingly confirming this country's absence from next year's Olympic tournament.

But unbowed, NZF refused to rule out taking their case all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, leaving open the possibility of another chapter in the player eligibility saga that has stained the game since July.

After New Zealand's under-23 team were kicked out of the Olympic qualification tournament in Papau New Guinea, NZF was adamant it was victim of a "premeditated and procedurally unfair" decision. South African-born Deklan Wynne, it vowed, was indeed eligible to represent his adopted nation, and legal action was pursued.

And even with that case dismissed by the Oceania Football Confederation, NZF remain convinced of its stand. Which may mean a subsequent appeal will be lodged at CAS, with a decision due in the next 21 days.

That decision will be made after seeking input from the game's stakeholders, assessing the legal merits of the case and, perhaps pivotally, calculating the financial risks of further litigation.

"We've got limited resources and people stretched through this process," said NZF president Deryck Shaw. "A lot of resources have gone into it to get us here, which was really important for the game. But we do have to look for the best way forward.

"I wouldn't want to put a cost on it now but it's not a cheap process. But it was really important for the game that we did it. We haven't been successful but, at the same time, we thought the merits of the appeal process were worth it."

We haven't been successful but, at the same time, we thought the merits of the appeal process were worth it.

NZF president Deryck Shaw

Shaw insisted NZF held no regrets over its handling of the case, even believing the governing body had been strengthened by what had been discovered during the process.

That view was based on increased knowledge surrounding the eligibility process, information already being used to ensure the salient lesson would be learned.

NZF has recently sought and received exemptions for eight players who were born outside New Zealand and failed to meet another established eligibility criterion, with many of those footballers representing the country at the Under-17 World Cup in Chile.

Ten more exemption applications are awaiting approval from Fifa and, with such a glut of previously ineligible players in the international picture, it's clear NZF had been following a different set of rules.

While that error claimed the scalp of high performance manager Fred de Jong, Shaw reiterated that NZF retained complete faith in chief executive Andy Martin and his staff.

"Since 2008, when the rules changed ... our high performance team have not interpreted the rules correctly," Martin said. "But there's no one person here who's been responsible."