The New Zealand national football team (Māori: Tīma hoka a-motu o Aotearoa) represents New Zealand in men's international football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Football (NZF), which is currently a member of FIFA and Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The team's official nickname is the All Whites (Māori: Ōmā).[4] New Zealand is a five-time OFC champion.
The team represented New Zealand at the FIFA World Cup tournaments in 1982 and 2010, and the FIFA Confederations Cup tournaments in 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2017. Because most New Zealand football clubs are semi-professional rather than fully professional, most professional New Zealand footballers play for clubs in English-speaking countries such as England, the United States and Australia.
New Zealand's first international football match was played in Dunedin at the old Caledonian Ground on 23 July 1904 against a team representing New South Wales. New Zealand lost by the game's only goal, but drew with the same team 3–3 in a game at Athletic Park, Wellington seven days later.[5] The following year the team played a Wellington representative side on 10 June before embarking on a tour of Australia, during which they played eleven representative sides, including three "test matches" against New South Wales. Of these three matches they won one, lost one, and drew one.
New Zealand playing against Israel during the 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifiers
A New Zealand national team did not play again until 1922, when New Zealand played three official full internationals against Australia, played at Carisbrook in Dunedin, Athletic Park in Wellington, and Auckland Domain. The results were two 3–1 wins to New Zealand and a 1–1 draw in Wellington.[6][7] In 1927, Canada became the second team to play in New Zealand as they played in four official matches with a win and a draw.[8]
New Zealand would become one of the founder members of the Oceania Football Confederation in 1966 which was founded between Charlie Dempsey and his Australian colleague in founding the federation.[9]
1980s success[]
According to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, up until the 1980s "the high visibility of British migrants in the All Whites, as well as in the game's administration and domestic club scene, attracted negative comments". The All Whites qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, losing all three of its games by multiple goals. Of the 22-man squad, 11 members were born in the United Kingdom, including seven in England alone. This included the captain Steve Sumner and striker Steve Wooddin, who had both played club football in England before immigrating. However, over the following decades the composition of the national squad changed and "the face of football became increasingly Kiwi".[10]
Since the 1990s, United States college soccer has played a significant role in the development of New Zealand players. This influence began when former Scotland internationalBobby Clark returned to the U.S. after his 1994–96 stint as New Zealand head coach to take the head coaching job at Stanford University (he now holds the same position at Notre Dame). Clark began recruiting in New Zealand, and former New Zealand national players Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott played for him at Stanford. The trend that Clark started has continued to the present; more than two dozen New Zealanders are now playing for NCAA Division I men's programs in the U.S.[11] A common next step in these players' career paths is a stint in Major League Soccer; ESPN soccernet journalist Brent Latham speculated in a March 2010 story that New Zealand's 2010 FIFA World Cup squad could have more MLS players than the U.S. squad.[11][12] However, Latham's speculation did not prove true, as only one MLS player made the New Zealand squad for the World Cup. New Zealand formerly competed against Australia for top honours in the OFC. However, after Australia left to join the AFC in 2006, New Zealand were left as the only seeded team in the OFC. New Zealand qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup though exited the competition after the first round despite being the only team not to lose a game during the tournament.[13] The tournament also featured one of New Zealand's most notable results, a 1–1 draw with the then world champions Italy. New Zealand drew their other two pool games with Slovakia and Paraguay and ultimately finished above Italy, who placed last, in the group. New Zealand drew all three games and finished third in their group. New Zealand were also the only undefeated team in the entire tournament thanks to Spain's defeat to Switzerland.
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification[]
New Zealand playing against Portugal in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.
In August 2014, Anthony Hudson was appointed manager of the All Whites. Hudson's first game in charge of the national team was a 3–1 defeat away to Uzbekistan in September 2014. As a result of the All Whites playing "just three matches" in the previous year, which was "the least of any country in world football",[14] and having "seven months without a match" the All Whites dropped to 161 in the FIFA world rankings.[15][16] The All Whites went on to win the 2016 OFC Nations Cup, winning four matches with the final being won via a penalty shootout after a 0–0 draw against Papua New Guinea, conceding only 1 goal, from a penalty, in the process. New Zealand's victory saw them crowned Oceania champions making New Zealand the most successful national team in the competition's history, having won the tournament five times, and also saw them qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. The All Whites moved up 54 places in the world rankings in July and achieved 88th in the FIFA world rankings, the highest ranking in three years, on the back of the OFC Nations Cup victory that qualified them for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.[17][18]
After a disappointing tournament at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup where they finished bottom of their group which featured Russia, Mexico and Portugal, the national team fell 27 places to 122nd.[19] In September 2017, New Zealand won the OFC Final against the Solomon Islands with an aggregate score of 8–3 to qualify for the inter-continental play-off qualifier against Peru, the fifth-ranked nation from the South America's qualifiers.[20][21] After holding Peru off in the first leg, they would go to lose 2–0 in the second leg to be eliminated from competition as Peru became the last team to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[22][23]
New Zealand vs Australia friendly match at Craven Cottage, London, England, 9 June 2005.
New Zealand's long time rivals are Trans-Tasman neighbours Australia.[24] The two teams' history dates back to 1922, where they first met in both their international debuts. The rivalry between the Socceroos (Australia) and the All Whites (New Zealand) is part of a wider friendly rivalry between the geographical neighbours Australia and New Zealand, which applies not only to sport but to the culture of the two countries. The rivalry was intensified when Australia and New Zealand were both members of the OFC, regularly competing in OFC Nations Cup finals and in FIFA World Cup qualifications, where only one team from the OFC progressed to the World Cup. Since Australia left the OFC to join the AFC in 2006, competition between the two teams has been less frequent. However, the rivalry between the two teams is still strong, with the occasional match receiving much media and public attention.[25] The rivalry extends to club football, with New Zealand's only fully professional team, the Wellington Phoenix, playing in the Australian A-League.
Team image[]
New Zealand's traditional home colours are white with a black trim, while its away kits are usually reversed, featuring black with a white trim. This reversal of the colour scheme by New Zealand's football team is due to the fact that black was traditionally reserved for referees by FIFA.
During the qualification for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, the team appeared for the first time in an all white uniform against Taiwan in 1981. This led a commentator to dub them the "All Whites", a play on the traditional name "All Blacks" used for the national rugby team.[26] The name stuck, and was popularized in the song "Marching off to Spain" with its chant refrain "Kiwis! All Whites!". More recently, the nickname has been scrutinised by New Zealand Football due to its unintended racial overtones.[26][27]
For all past and present players who have appeared for the national team, see New Zealand national team players.
Current squad[]
The following players were called up for the friendly matches against Gambia, to be played on 16 November 2021.[31] Caps and goals updated as of 17 November 2021 after the game against The Gambia.
^Hilton, Tony; Smith, Barry (1991). An Association with Soccer: The NZFA Celebrates Its First 100 Years. New Zealand Football. pp. 143–144. ISBN978-0473012915.
^"Football in New Zealand". Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. p. 1. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
^Latham's piece directly states; "From his post across the Pacific Ocean, Ricki Herbert may have a more profound interest in labor peace in America [referring to a possible MLS player strike that was averted days after the piece] than anyone in the history of New Zealand, because when his team kicks off the World Cup against Slovakia on 15 June, the All-Whites' lineup could feature even more MLS players than [U.S. national coach Bob] Bradley's."
1 Associate member of OFC - Not a member of FIFA 2 Not a member of OFC and consequently not a member of FIFA 3 Northern Mariana Islands was only an associate member of OFC between 1998 and 2009 - Not a member of FIFA 4 Although not geographically in Oceania, Chinese Taipei was a member of the OFC between 1976–1978 and 1982–1989 Although not geographically in Oceania Israel entered OFC World Cup qualification in 1986 and 1990 due to political reasons, though it never became a formal OFC member.
(23 December 2021)[1]
New Zealand 3–1 Australia 
Gambia 
Uzbekistan 
New Caledonia 
Darren Bazeley
Jonathan Gould
Sunz Singh[28]
Hapoel Nof HaGalil
Swansea City
Kyoto Sanga
Minnesota United
Sint-Truiden
IFK Värnamo
Padova
Rio Ave
Viking
Jahn Regensburg
Copenhagen
Giresunspor
1930
1934
1938
1950
1954
1962
1970
1978
1982
1998
2014
2018
2022
1992
2000
2012
3
—
