New Zealand Soccer FAQ's

For all competitions except the national league, pre-season training usually starts in mid-January (summer). Pre-season games are played in February and March. The league season starts in mid-March/early April (autumn) and finishes in mid-August/early September (spring).

Our national men's team, the "All Whites" (the colour of their shirt - in contrast to the national rugby team, the "All Blacks") have a FIFA world ranking of 120th out of 205 listed national teams as at April 2006. Qualification for the World Cup Finals generally depends upon the results achieved against the generally higher-ranked Australian team (44th of 205 listed national teams as at April 2006). The "All Whites" have appeared once in the World Cup Finals (Spain 1982).

The decision by FIFA in December 2002 to allocate the Oceania confederation one automatic place (instead of the Oceania winner having to play-off against another confederation team from South America or Europe) has boosted the chances of the "All Whites" appearing in the World Cup Finals in the future. However in June 2003 FIFA reversed this decision and the winner of the Oceania confederation qualification games will now play the fifth-placed South American team.
The Oceania qualification games for the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany saw the 10 Pacific Island nations play in two groups in May/June 2004 (Group A: Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, American Samoa. Group B: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Islands). The winners and runners-up from those tournaments joined New Zealand and Australia in a round-robin tournament held in late 2004, where the two top qualifiers Australia and Solomon Islands emerged. These two teams met in a home and away playoff in 2005 to determine the winner of the Oceania confederation with Australia prevailing. Australia, as winners of the Oceania confederation, then had a home and away playoff in November 2005 against the fifth-placed South American team, Uruguay, for a place in the 2006 World Cup Finals to be held in Germany. Both teams won their home game 1-0 and with no goals in extra-time the tie was settled 4-2 on penalties to Australia.
As at 31 December 2005 Australia left the Oceania confederation and joined the Asian confederation. This decision will give the "All-Whites" team an improved chance of qualification for the 2010 World Cup Finals to be held in South Africa, although the Oceania confederation qualification winner will have a home and away play-off against the 5th-placed Asian confederation team.
The group draw for the 2008 World Cup Oceania Confederation qualification games (made on 12 June 2007) is:

• Group A - Fiji, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Tuvalu
• Group B - Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, American Samoa

New Zealand teams can best be described as being generally physical with fair technical skills. Serious and social competition leagues are played in the major cities throughout New Zealand. Competitions within New Zealand are organised on a club basis for adults with colleges (13 to 17 year-olds) having separate leagues.

Our national women's team, the "Football Ferns" (as from 4th September 2007) were previously known as the "SWANZ" (Soccer Womens Association New Zealand) have a FIFA world ranking of 22nd out of 125 listed national teams as the latest ranking issued at March 2006. Their qualification for the World Cup finals, scheduled originally for China from September 23rd to October 11th 2003 (however FIFA moved the tournament to the United States following the SARS health crisis in early 2003 and was held from September 20th to October 12th) is largely dependent upon their result against Australia who had a FIFA world ranking of 15th out of 125 listed national teams as at March 2006.
As at 31 December 2005 Australia left the Oceania confederation and joined the Asian confederation. This decision will give the "SWANZ" team an improved chance of qualification for the World Cup Finals, as the Oceania confederation qualfication winner gains an automatic entry to the Finals. (The next highest-ranked Oceania team is Tonga, ranked 53rd of the 125 national teams as at March 2006).

The Oceania qualification games for the 1 available place in the 2007 World Cup Finals were held in the Solomon Islands in March 2007. New Zealand defeated Tonga, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to earn qualification for the World Cup Finals held in China from 10th September 2007 to 30th September 2007.

There are 16 nations competing for the 5th FIFA Women's World Cup.
The group draw for the 2007 Women's World Cup Final (China - 10th to 30th September) is:

• Group A - Germany, Japan, England, Argentina
• Group B - United States, Nigeria, North Korea, Sweden
.
• Group C - Canada, Norway, Australia, Ghana
• Group D - China, New Zealand, Brazil, Denmark

In the local Oceania region Australia won the 1995, 1998 and 2003 Oceania qualifying tournaments to qualify for Sweden 1995, USA 1999 and USA 2003, where they fared poorly, earning just one point in 1999. New Zealand represented the Oceania region at the first FIFA Women's World Cup held in China in 1991.

New Zealand teams can best be described as being generally physical with fair technical skills. Serious and social competition leagues are played in the major cities throughout New Zealand. Competitions within New Zealand are organised on a club basis for adults with colleges (13 to 17 year-olds) having separate leagues.

Temperatures vary from daytime highs around 25-30° C in summer (January - mid-March) to daytime highs in winter (July - August) around 10° C. The North Island is generally warmer, but some South Island areas (such as Nelson and Central Otago) do get very hot in the summer.
In general New Zealand enjoys a reasonably mild maritime climate. Snow is usually confined to the mountain ranges and not on the populated areas.

New Zealand is well advanced technologically. People value and enjoy the recreational activities available at the beaches, forests, national parks and lakes throughout New Zealand. Our tap water is drinkable.

New Zealand's major newspapers

A few recent examples of local shop prices:

• Big Mac hamburger (McDonalds) : $2.95
• Pint of beer : $4.00
• Milk : $1.85 a litre
• Newspaper: $1.30 Dominion Post (Wellington) - weekdays, $2.00 weekends
• Tomatoes: $9.99 a kilogram
• Bananas: $2.89 a kilogram
• Letter: 50c postage (standard letter for domestic mail)

New Zealand dollar (= 100 cents) purchasing power equivalent in overseas currency. (Approximate rates @ 7/09/07)

• US dollar: 0.6765
• Australian dollar: 0.8234
• Japanese yen: 77.60
• UK pound: 0.3344
• Euro: 0.4933
• South African rand: 4.8785