What's In A Nickname?

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What's In A Nickname?

by Jeremy Ruane

What's in a nickname?

Quite a bit, actually. So much, in fact, that it has prompted this column to be penned!

What there is, of course, is history, and plenty of it. Take the All Whites' moniker, for instance, a tag which has stood the test of time since it was introduced after John Adshead's charges first sported an all-white kit in the goalless draw in Taiwan in their third match on the road to Spain '82.

Before that match, the 'All Whites' chant had never existed, as New Zealand had, by and large, played in white shirts and socks with black shorts for much of the previous decade. And, in years long before that, black shirts and white shorts on occasions.

The Youth All Whites tag, long associated with the U-20s team, stems from the days when the FIFA U-20 World Cup was known as the FIFA Youth World Championship.

Likewise the Junior All Whites nickname. It was known as the FIFA Junior World Championship before it was renamed the FIFA U-17 World Cup, a tournament New Zealand hosted in 1999, in which the host nation's team was known and marketed as the Junior All Whites.

On the women's side of the game, the national team was, for a number of years, known as the SWANZ, a nickname sourced from the initials of the Women's Soccer Association of New Zealand, by which the game's governing body was known before all the various national associations were brought under the all-encompassing body we know today as New Zealand Football.

In 2006, New Zealand's women needed a new nickname, and it was Annalie Longo who came up with the 'Football Ferns' tag by which they are known the world over today.

Before that nickname appeared on the world stage for the first time, however, the U-20s squad had their World Cup qualifying campaign to contest, while New Zealand had gained the hosting rights to the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Finals in 2008.

With these events in mind, and using the Football Ferns' moniker as their starting point, the Junior Ferns and Young Ferns tags were swiftly introduced by NZF, with the latter name being applied to the U-17 campaign, and the former to all U-20 women's activities.

Everything went swimmingly initially, until one day some absolute 'dumbkopf' in NZF's ivory tower - I don't know who, and I never want to! - thought it would be a great idea to cast aside that which had gone before history-wise, and align the names of the men's age-grade teams with the tags which were serving the women so well.

In other words, associate the Junior All Whites name with the U-20 men's team, and the Young All

Whites with the U-17 men's team.

Can anyone else see the glaringly obvious problem here? Having had the U-17 team known as the Junior All Whites for the best part of twenty-five years, the U-20 team was now going to be known by the same name …

Genius, eh? Sheer mind-boggling genius!

If ever there was an instance where the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" was ever needed in New Zealand footballing circles, this was it. But someone with no respect for the history of the game thought they knew better …

The confusion which has resulted from this re-branding disaster has ultimately prompted NZF to look to discard the nicknames associated with their age-grade teams, and instead refer to their representative sides as U-20 women's, U-17 women's, U-20 men's and U-17 men's as necessary.

Not exactly names you could describe as marketable, eh?

Especially when one compares them with the corresponding tags - Junior Ferns, Young Ferns, Youth All Whites and Junior All Whites - which, quite frankly, were a perfect fit, and made promoting the respective sides very easy from both a marketing and media perspective, as well as emphasising their perfect alignment with their seniors, i.e. the Football Ferns and the All Whites.

Think of it from a player's perspective. Which would have greater cachet - "I'm an U-20 women's international", or "I'm a Junior Fern"? Any code you'd care to mention boasts players befitting the former phrase, but there's only one code with claims to the latter title, and it ain't cricket!

Clearly the lack of a nickname to associate with our age-grade representative teams grates with some, as references such as "Wee Ferns" have been noted in recent times.

At the same time, there are folk who would prefer to see no nicknames at all, and all representative sides simply referred to as New Zealand - a somewhat impractical viewpoint, in this day and age, given the need to stand out from the crowd where promoting your sport and its achievements are concerned.

So, what nicknames to use? Well, there's no point in reinventing the wheel, something which NZF has looked to do every so often in days gone by in a variety of areas. The nicknames have existed for some time - quite a few years in a couple of instances. Why not continue to use them?

All Whites - senior men's national team

Football Ferns - senior women's national team

OlyWhites - U-23 men's national team

Junior Ferns - U-20 women's national team

Youth All Whites - U-20 men's national team

Young Ferns - U-17 women's national team

Junior All Whites - U-17 men's national team

National Teams