Football: The mega-clash of the Whites against Belgium is canceled by Covid-19

The All Whites’ clash against world number one Belgium has been officially canceled due to Covid-19.

New Zealand Football (NZF) confirmed the news on Saturday after denying preventive reports of a possible cancellation on September 17.

NZF CEO Andrew Pragnell says the decision to remove the game from the team’s schedule was difficult and saddening primarily due to the availability of the players.

“We are incredibly disappointed to be in this position, but from the beginning our first priority was our players,” Pragnell said in a press release.

“As it currently stands, we cannot get our team to the game and return to their respective countries without major interruptions in their national seasons.”

In early September, head coach Danny Hay detailed the lack of available players for his year-end matches due to constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Hay did not expect players to appear outside of Europe, and admitted that he himself would need to establish a camp for a long period of time in the northern hemisphere.

On top of that, FIFA has relaxed the rules for international windows in October and November, which means that clubs don’t have to release players as usual. That would likely result in even more Kiwis missing a special game in the white jersey.

“We knew when we agreed to this fixture that the impact of Covid-19 was fluid, but with several members of our squad not being able to travel due to Covid restrictions, or having to go through a significant quarantine upon returning home, it became Unworkable – it pulled them out of contention for their clubs and had an impact on their long-term development as players and their careers.

The clash was to precede another historic New Zealand match against England at Wembley Stadium, which is scheduled for 9 November and the fate of which has yet to be determined.

“We continue to monitor the situation around future games,” was Pregnall’s only comment about other All Whites games.

The match against Belgium would have been the most important test for the men’s team since their 2010 World Cup match against Italy. Even then, Italy was not number one in the world at the time.