Steven Holloway: NZF 'move forward' from eligibility saga

Fred De Jong. Photo / Richard Robinson

When New Zealand Football accepted the resignation of high performance director Fred De Jong last week, it was their first acknowledgement of accountability in the eligibility saga which has threatened to derail the national body.

De Jong seemed to reluctantly accept his fate as NZF's fall-guy but the timing of the announcement seemed at odds with NZF's strategy of staying mum until their legal appeal against the Oceania Football Confederation was over.

New Zealand were booted from the Olympic qualifying tournament in Papua New Guinea 10 weeks ago for fielding an ineligible player, but a decision on the outcome of their appeal is expected within the next two weeks.

By accepting, or perhaps forcing, De Jong's resignation, NZF have by proxy accepted a degree of guilt in the case before the judge bangs their gavel.

The resignation also came days after a meeting between OFC boss David Chung and NZF president Deryck Shaw, which resulted in a peculiar shared media release which noted that the fractious relationship between the two bodies was a thing of the past and they are both committed to "moving forward together".

Moving forward, of course, means moving past the turmoil of the last 12 months when the relationship had soured to the point where a two-year ban on New Zealand across all age groups and tournaments was genuinely on the table.

Moving forward also means fast-forwarding past, and not speaking about, the Olympic appeal process which has already cost both camps well in excess of $100,000.

But most importantly, moving forward means closing the lid on the wide-ranging eligibility circus which has reflected so poorly on OFC, NZF and the Fifa statutes.

NZF have now applied for all their required exemptions and OFC have agreed to drop their investigation into the ineligible players that helped New Zealand qualify for the Under-17 World Cup.

The new harmonious relationship will instantly be tested if NZF lose the appeal - although there's a feeling they have a good case due to a technical interpretation of Fifa legislation.

Would they still take their fight a step further to the Court of Arbitration in Switzerland, which would likely upset OFC? Or will they "move forward", to put this mess behind them, instead focusing their time and money on getting the All Whites some high quality matches in the November window?

It is high time cooler heads prevail in this on-going saga. The only shame is that their meeting didn't happen two months earlier, preventing a tenuous time of strained relationships and bad press.

De Jong is one of the big losers in all of this. By falling on his sword, it also means coach Anthony Hudson, widely viewed as being the driving force behind the strategy of recruiting this new swathe of dubiously-eligible players for international duty, gets a free pass. Martin may also be nervously awaiting the appeal outcome.

The real casualties, however, are the 21 under-23 footballers who have been living in Olympic purgatory for the past 10 weeks. Their dreams are still hanging on by a thread, but they deserve much better.

De Jong cited accountability as the reason for his resignation. With "alignment" the football buzzword of the year, the question now is how aligned other leading NZF figures are with this notion of accountability.