Andy Martin, the new chief executive of New Zealand Football, has clarified his organisation’s position on player availability, presumably in response to Blues defender Tommy Smith making himself unavailable for the recent friendly in Japan and saying he won’t be involved in another friendly in June.
Smith, who was annoyed to miss the Blackpool game earlier in the season when New Zealand strictly enforced a deadline for him to join up with the squad ahead of their World Cup play-off double header against Mexico, opted out of the Japan game to concentrate on Town’s play-off push and says he’ll need a break in the summer.
However, the 23-year-old, who has been capped 27 times by the All Whites, scoring twice, says he has no plans to retire from international football.
"We expect all of our eligible players to make themselves available for selection as we seek to build our programme towards the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018,” English-born Martin, who was previously the CEO of rugby side London Irish, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"We have an exciting young squad and we hope everyone selected will want to be involved. Clearly, there will be special circumstances that arise which will be considered on their own merits.”
Martin says the All Whites will look at recruiting a successor to former head coach Ricki Herbert next month with former Wolves and Norwich man Neil Emblen currently filling the role on a temporary basis.
"Once the review process from the previous campaign is completed in April, the All Whites’ coaching job will be advertised globally and we expect a lot of interest.”