Former New Zealand national football team coach Kevin Fallon "has called for the heads" of NZ Football CEO Andy Martin, High-performance Dir Fred de Jong and national team coach Anthony Hudson, according to David Long of STUFF. Fallon said that "the trio should be held accountable for the player-eligibility fiasco" that resulted in the team being expelled from the Olympic qualifying tournament -- the "biggest disaster" the sport has faced in this country. It came to light last week that "there have been further breaches of eligibility rules in New Zealand representative teams," including the U17 boy's team that qualified for its age-grade World Cup in Chile in October and November. Fallon said that "there needed to be accountability at the top of NZ Football." He said, "They are all keeping their heads below the parapet on this, no-one is taking responsibility." Fallon, 66, felt that there was not enough experience "at the top of New Zealand Football and this contributed to the crisis." Fallon: "There's been a big clean-out and you've got all of these young coaches running around with tight trousers, two-day beards and pointed shoes and they're all disparaging about the old-school ways. Well, the old school never made these sorts of mistakes" (STUFF, 8/2).
