Soccer: All Whites may play Premiership clubs

It's by no means certain but the All Whites may be moving closer to a unique double-header, playing English Premiership clubs Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers in England during the Northern pre-season next year.

Not certain because, in the hurly-burly world of the Premiership, nothing is sure until it's already happened and the All Whites are having to plough new ground to get around the frustration of an inadequate international calendar. However, New Zealand Soccer [NZS] CEO Graham Seatter said he has secured "agreement in principle" with Blackburn chairman John Williams and Charlton CEO Peter Varney for games in July and August next year.

Seatter said the managements of the clubs have to take the proposal to the respective coaches, Alan Curbishley of Charlton and Mark Hughes of Blackburn, who can yet veto the matches. There is also the matter of finance, a six-figure sum, to sort out to take an All Whites squad to Britain.

The window Seatter is hoping to open is the time in the English pre-season when clubs have traditionally been away on a tour and then return home to play a couple of home matches on their newly-refurbished pitch before embarking on the Premiership again.

The national side have played just one international this year - against Australia in June - and are intensely keen on finding opponents. But, as Seatter said, there are basically none to be found because of football's unique confederation system.

"If you look at Luxembourg, for example, you can see the scale of our problem," said Seatter. "When I was in Europe, I asked the Luxembourg people how many friendlies they played a year. They replied that they don't play friendlies."

They don't need to. With World Cup and European qualifiers, they play 12 quality matches in a 15-month period against the likes of Portugal, Slovakia, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Russia and Estonia. NZS would move heaven and earth for opponents with such regularity.

"But in our confederation - in which we must play according to FIFA's rules - there are no games against teams ranked above us; no one we can improve against; no one with whom we can have significant, meaningful contests," said Seatter.

So when the New Zealanders seek friendly games, they find that other international opponents have full diaries or no need nor desire to play friendlies. "When international teams play World Cup qualifiers, for example, they get a slice of the broadcast pie from TV; they get the best players because they play in a FIFA window so club players are available; and their only outlay is transport," said Seatter.

"But when you play a friendly, you get no broadcast money; you have to pay out for everything and you don't get the best players."

"I'm not comparing us to Luxembourg - they're 155th in the world, we're 111th," said Seatter. "Although if we can't find more matches, we could slip down there."

New Zealand are not the only country subject to these rules - Seatter referred to Australia's recent 5-0 win over Jamaica.

"That wasn't the real Jamaica, they were missing too many players," he said. "So how is that going to help Australia when they meet Uruguay in the World Cup playoff?"

And so New Zealand's focus is turning to Blackburn and Charlton. Seatter said it's not clear yet what size squad the All Whites might take if the matches come off. He hopes they will be able to use some of their UK and Europe-based players.

He also doesn't know whether Blackburn's All Whites captain Ryan Nelsen might be freed up to play against his club. But he is hoping to build the relationship with the two clubs with a view to, eventually, inviting one or both to come over to New Zealand for pre or post-season games.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY