(Reuters) – New Zealand coach Danny Hay has criticised FIFA for scheduling a part of Oceania’s World Cup qualifying match exterior the worldwide window, saying it could not occur to every other area.
The nine-team match shall be staged in Qatar from March 14-30 to determine which staff advances to a playoff in opposition to the fourth-placed facet from CONCACAF, which options nations from North and Central America, and the Caribbean.
World governing physique FIFA have given the Oceania nations a one-day extension to the March 21-29 worldwide window however they must haggle with golf equipment to launch gamers throughout the first week of the match.
New Zealand is disproportionately impacted by the scheduling given it has extra gamers at skilled golf equipment than their Pacific rivals.
“This might occur nowhere else on the planet,” Hay advised New Zealand media.
“I’m right here in Denmark in the mean time and making an attempt to clarify how this has transpired, no one can get their head round it.
“I spoke with the Danish Soccer Federation immediately, they usually had been simply bamboozled.
“Think about saying to the Danish nationwide staff that you’ve World Cup qualifying, however you’ll be able to’t choose your finest gamers?
“For me and our gamers, it is extremely disappointing.”
New Zealand had been the final Oceania staff to qualify for the World Cup after they made the 2010 finals in South Africa.
They’ve been drawn in Group B of the Oceania match in opposition to New Caledonia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
“Each single participant that I’ve known as updated is an expert participant, they’re working in skilled environments, however golf equipment aren’t going to be keen handy over their gamers in the course of the season,” stated Hay.
“It is a robust one to swallow, that we aren’t going to have the chance to deliver our greatest gamers collectively to provide us the perfect alternative to qualify.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Enhancing by Peter Rutherford)
