New Zealand Soccer's annual awards dinner, held at the Rendezvous (formerly Carlton) Hotel on November 23, saw the introduction of a new award at the end of the evening, to recognise the governing body's “Team of the Year”. The candidates pretty much picked themselves. Only the tardy would object to any of this trio of teams being in line for the honour: Auckland City, the champions of not just New Zealand but Oceania as well, and soon to represent the region at the FIFA Club World Cup Finals in Japan; The New Zealand Under-20 Women's World Cup Finals squad, who, amongst other achievements in the past year, produced the best-ever finish by a team from this country on the greatest stage available to them; The All Whites, who recorded a first-ever win on European soil during the twelve months under review. When the announcement of the winner of this inaugural award was made, however … On an evening which saw a handful of standard presentations from years gone by not made, including the much coveted Jim McMullan Trophy which recognises and rewards service to the game, and a genuine surprise in the awarding of the International Women's Player of the Year award to Ali Riley, who has yet to play for her country at senior level - until now a pre-requisite for this honour, NZS saved their biggest shock of the night till last! By naming the All Whites as their Team of the Year, NZ Soccer has applied ye olde “jobs for the boys” mentality in a different way, and, to make it worse, in a public domain which demands, nay, expects that genuine achievements should be recognised first and foremost. Yes, the All Whites beat Georgia 3-1 in Germany. Marvellous! This country's first win on European soil against full international opposition. And while the Georgians are far from being a world footballing superpower, it's a result to be proud of, certainly. But can you honestly convince me that the merits of that achievement exceed those of Auckland City in: winning back-to-back NZ Football Championship honours - both the premiership and the Grand Final; winning the Oceania Club World Cup qualifying berth, and earning the game in this country a minimum $US 1m pay-day in the process; winning Sport Auckland's Sports Team of the Year award - only the second soccer team to win this honour? And can you honestly convince me that the All Whites' victory is more meritorious than the achievements of the U-20 Women's squad, who, during the past year:

convincingly won the Oceania championship; recorded the first-ever win by a full New Zealand representative side on South American soil when beating River Plate; came within thirty seconds of drawing with the host nation at the U-20 Women's World Cup Finals in Russia; scored arguably New Zealand's best-ever result in world football at the same tournament when battling out a scoreless draw with Brazil, the country ranked third in the world in senior women's football, and which concluded this tournament in that position at U-20 level; secured a final thirteenth placing at this event, New Zealand's highest-ever finish at a FIFA Finals tournament; clinched, thanks largely to this placing, $340,000 worth of High Performance Funding from SPARC and the NZ Academy of Sport, the first-ever recognition of football in this way by the country's foremost sporting body, to assist NZS with the 2007 Women's World Cup Finals programme; have, through their efforts, played a part in New Zealand being named as host nation of the inaugural FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup Finals in 2008? Of course you won't convince me, because as you can see above, the All Whites' achievements don't even begin to compare! Sadly, it would appear that those charged with determining the winner of the Team of the Year award opted for the “safe” option. What follows will doubtless upset some people, but quite frankly, I'm past caring! It is, however, a sad reflection on the mainstream media that they have neglected to raise an issue which a lot of folk within the game with whom I've been in contact since the awards dinner are openly commenting on. The credibility of the game in this country is far more important to me than the perceived need to be “politically correct”, and to tug the forelock to the “powers-that-be”, especially when said “masters of all they survey” have got things way wrong, as is unquestionably the case with this award. It's just not the done thing to present such an award to a women's team when men's teams are in contention, is it? You'd upset too many of the die-hards who regard a woman's place as being in the kitchen or the

bedroom, not realising on the football pitch the long-held objectives of this country's predominantly male footballing fraternity - both qualifying for and performing creditably on FIFA's ultimate stage, the World Cup Finals, something which the men's side of the code, for all the support and funding afforded it over the years, has consistently failed to do. The obvious exception to the latter part of this statement is Auckland City. Now here is a team from the men's side of the code which, largely independently of the national body, is set to become the second team from this country to grace one of FIFA's showpiece events in 2006, in their case the FIFA Club World Cup Finals. Yet, bizarrely, they don't seem to enjoy the full support of all and sundry. Lip service is paid, of course, but witness, for instance, how quickly the opportunity to deduct NZFC points from City recently was taken - and without the merest hint of a protest being submitted via the proper channels, by the way, thus setting a very dangerous precedent for the future. No, we'd upset too many people by opting for the Under-20s or Auckland City. Best to stick with the tried and trusted, the option we know everyone will support, and which won't offend anyone. The All Whites. (Buzzer sound). Wrong answer. Unless, that is, you're wanting to reward mediocrity and under-achievement. Because there are a couple of other aspects regarding the All Whites' record, compared to those of their fellow nominees, which appear to have been rather conveniently overlooked by the award judges, aspects which serve to emphasise just how farcical this decision really is. The fact that the side named “Team of the Year” won just three games in the last twelve months, for instance, the same number the much-maligned (and with justification aplenty, in their case) New Zealand Knights has managed in the club's sixteen-month existence in the Hyundai A-League. On that basis, this country's sole professional soccer club should have been in contention for this award as well! And the fact that defeats of the magnitude of 4-1 (to Chile), 4-0 (to Brazil, who, if one is honest in assessing that game, would have won by a far greater margin had they fully applied themselves), 5-0 (to Blackburn Rovers) and 5-1 (to Seville) - club sides in the last two instances, if you hadn't noticed - appear to have counted for nothing in the final reckoning. Award-winning sides might have one such aberration a season, two at the very most. But four? All Whites, Team of the Year? You're having a laugh!!