Abby Erceg's Retirement

The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home

Stark Situation Spotlighted By Courageous Captain

by Jeremy Ruane

Abby Erceg announced her retirement from the Football Ferns on 21 February, citing a point of principle as the reason for bringing the curtain down on a 130-cap career to which a further four caps should be added at the forthcoming Cyprus Cup.

It is a courageous stance taken by the Football Ferns captain, particularly as it is addressing an issue which no longer affects her personally, given she departed these shores in 2011 to play professionally in Australia (Adelaide United), Germany (USV Jena) and with three teams in the USA.

In doing so, she left behind the Football Ferns' training environment, where the locally based squad members train between four and six nights a week on North Harbour Stadium's outer fields, their efforts and commitment geared towards self- and team-improvement, with the over-riding goal of success on the world stage their ultimate objective.

To all intents and purposes, the levels of dedication and commitment one expects of footballers working in a high-achieving operation with multiple trophies and the rewards associated with same the ultimate return for their efforts, for which they usually receive financial recompense in some way, shape or form en route.

Locally, the Auckland City FC squad springs to mind as the best example of this process in action, with their occasional against-the-odds achievements in conquering fully professional teams from other continents rightly earning them due praise, even if through gritted teeth by some!

Be in no doubt that the "Navy Blues" couldn't achieve the successes they have without funding from a variety of sources, some of which is directed towards their squad members, in the form of recompense for the time they devote to ACFC throughout the season, and the expenses they incur in same, e.g. petrol, boots.

While the country's foremost club team looks after its players in this way, the same cannot be said for the country's foremost locally based female footballers, who receive precisely nothing from their "employers", NZ Football, for the same degree of dedication to duty they make for the Football Ferns' greater good on the world stage.

It is this principle on which Erceg has chosen to make a stand, on behalf of the likes of Annalie Longo, Meikayla Moore, Jasmine Pereira, Aimee Phillips, Paige Satchell and Catherine Bott, locally based Football Ferns internationals who are, quite literally, between a rock and a hard place on this sensitive issue.

It's not one they can speak out upon, for fear of being ostracised from the Football Ferns programme, yet it's an issue they can't afford to let lie, because it ultimately impacts upon their ability to make a living, given the situation of nightly training and infrequent international excursions precludes the prospect of regular employment as most know it.

With the odd exception, none of the Football Ferns, past or present, has been paid to play the game they love while based in their homeland. NZ Football's employment of the legendary Maia Jackman and Mainland Football's appointment of Longo as their Women's Football Development Officer are very much exceptions, rather than the norm, in this regard.

All the others, be they multi-times-capped stars like Hayley Bowden (nee Moorwood) or potential long-term successors, have had to pay their own way to have the chance to realise their footballing dreams by earning New Zealand women's football success on the world stage.

As someone who has personally forked out over $200,000 to ensure coverage of our female footballers' exploits both locally and abroad over the last thirty years, this writer knows all too well why the locally based Football Ferns aren't able to raise the issue which Erceg has boldly brought forth into the public domain.

Stopping or even reducing said coverage isn't even a consideration! If anything, axing in entirety the coverage afforded the likes of such overpaid under-achievers as Wellington Phoenix is a far more likely prospect - and when you consider this scribe has compiled a full match report on all but two of the 261 Hyundai A-League games that club has played to date …

As well, the girls get sod-all support from local media as it is, and the majority of what you do see in "mainstream media" is more often than not spoon-fed to those outlets by NZ Football's overworked (and under-appreciated) media department!

A digression. The root of the issue is the local Football Ferns players only receive payments for their efforts when, like their All Whites counterparts, they receive per diem payments when on international duty, or a share of any prize money earned from their exploits abroad.

When not sporting the silver fern, the locally based All Whites are catered for financially by their clubs, primarily via sponsorship arrangements, a privilege denied their female counterparts because the women's game in NZ isn't set up along the same lines.

And that's before one considers the number of clubs which actively look after their Premier Women's League team - if they have one - on the same basis as they do their equivalent men's team. Forrest Hill-Milford United's National Women's Knockout Cup semi-final fundraising episode last year instantly springs to mind at this point …

The Football Ferns' programme is largely funded by High Performance Sport NZ grants, which are performance-based, and have been reduced in the current Olympic window (through to Tokyo 2020) because Tony Readings' charges failed to attain certain pre-tournament qualification targets set for

both the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals and the 2016 Olympic Women's Football Tournament.

The impact certain refereeing decisions had on those objectives not being realised can't be understated, even though it's inconsequential to HPSNZ's black-and-white outlook on life, which effectively boils down to 'Target realised, yes or no'.

Cue a reduced budget, which impacts on the Football Ferns in a variety of ways, most notably in terms of the number of matches they can play. In a worst case scenario, i.e. the bare minimum of funding being made available to them, it could result in the programme being severely revised, with the nightly training sessions paired right back to the way things were in days of yore, when the squad only came together a few days prior to the tournament for which they were preparing …

Suffice to say, that situation would never satisfy NZF's stated objectives for this country's best-performed international representative team, the one consistently ranked inside the world's top twenty, and which frequently punches above its weight when tackling the challenges posed by the likes of Brazil and China, the two nations they defeated to win the Valais Cup in Switzerland in 2013.

Such triumphs will no longer be possible unless something is done to rectify the situation which has prompted Erceg to take the drastic action she has. Those who think this is a bluff had best think again - the Football Ferns captain is a strong-willed young lady, and certainly not someone to take such action lightly. Take it from me - her word is her bond.

Only if the change she seeks - recompense for the locally based Football Ferns players - is actively being enforced by NZF will she contemplate revising her premature international retirement.

To which end, this writer proposes a logical and sensible solution, in the form of some assistance from the NZ Football Foundation, an organisation independent of the national body but one created to acquire and manage funds for NZ Football to provide the long-term financial support to grow the game in this country.

This case seems to be a more than worthy means for the objectives of the Football Foundation, and the support it can potentially provide. As Erceg said when announcing the reason for her international retirement, "We are not looking for thousands or even hundred of dollars a week. We are just looking for New Zealand Football to take away our expenses so we can do our job".

If the suggested support from NZFF results in Erceg revising her decision to retire - a decision which will certainly challenge the Football Ferns' on-field resources short-term, be in no doubt - there will be far more winners than losers in this unfortunate situation, one which has required a dramatic and courageous act by the team's leader to prompt comment, consideration and, I've no doubt eventually, action for the greater good.

In retiring, Erceg joins fellow Rio 2016 team-mates Sarah Gregorius - another shock retiree - and Rebecca Rolls in becoming a former Football Fern, and Father Time alone suggests the likes of long-standing team-mates Amber Hearn and Kirsty Yallop are unlikely to be around for France 2019, venue for the next FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, or Tokyo 2020.

With 130 caps to her name at present, the 27-year-old is New Zealand's most capped international, male or female. All told, Erceg has donned the silver fern 142 times at senior level, with a further nineteen appearances having been made for the Junior Ferns.

In an international career laden with highlights, she made nine appearances in three FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, and ten in three Olympic Women's Football Tournaments.

Her debut came against China in November 2006, and she became the first player to clock up a century of "A" international appearances when captaining her country against Tonga in the 2014 OFC Women's Nations Cup tournament.

That was one of 48 occasions on which she has led her country into battle - again, a feat no-one has yet matched. Lifting the Valais Cup, as well as numerous Oceania trophies, also features on her highlights reel, along with many memorable results and milestones realised by the Football Ferns over the last decade.

One should not omit from this brief reflection on Erceg's achievements what was easily the most memorable goal of the ten she scored for her country in all matches, this one prompting a comeback against the host nation at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Finals in Russia, the tournament which underlined her potential to be a New Zealand international with a big future ahead of her on the world stage.

That potential has been fulfilled on numerous occasions since. And once this issue is resolved to everyone's satisfaction, anticipate more such moments for Abby Erceg - the best is very likely still to come.

Road To France & Tokyo