OlyWhites’ departure from Des Buckingham closed as soon as the Olympics were postponed

New Zealand Football was of the opinion that Des Buckingham would not coach the White Olympians at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics from the time they were postponed in late March.

Buckingham had been hired to coach the U-23 men’s national team until the end of August, while All Whites coach Danny Hay assumed that responsibility from September 1.

Hay will now coach the team in Tokyo, as long as the Olympics advance next year, which is far from certain, as the world responds to the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges it has created.

“The only decision to make here was whether there would be any activity between now and August 31,” NZ Football Chief Executive Andrew Pragnell said Friday.

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“When the Olympics were postponed, a decision was made in August (2019, when Hay was appointed) that was already underway.”

“It was an opportunity to obtain the disposition of the land in international activity for the next three or four months and to see if there were other opportunities for Des in the organization as well.”

It took NZ Football five weeks from the postponement of the Olympics on March 24 to communicate its decision on the coach role to the players and the public, but Pragnell emphasized that Buckingham was aware from the start.

“We were in an early dialogue with Des from the beginning. There has been a lot of conversation from one side to the other and it has been positive and productive.

“I can’t comment on that for him. I would say we were pretty clear on our position.”

Buckingham joined NZ Football in early 2018, returning from England to coach the U-20 men’s national team until the FIFA World Cup in Poland in May and June.

When former All Whites coach Fritz Schmid resigned in late June, Buckingham was named coach of the OlyWhites until the end of the Tokyo Olympics, which were originally scheduled for July and August.

He led a team patched up to the gold medal at the Pacific Games in Samoa last July, a tournament off the FIFA calendar, and then took on a much-changed team at the OFC U-23 Championship, that they won in record. breaking fashion to secure her place in Tokyo.

This year, he was ready to take over the All Whites, which indeed would have been the OlyWhites, at the OFC Nations Cup in Auckland in June, before the team headed to Japan in early July, but the Covid pandemic -19 ruined those plans.

Pragnell said he was “gutted” by Buckingham, but was confident that this was the correct course of action for NZ Football, despite the fact that it had generated a strong reaction among some sections of the football community.

“We have enormous respect for Des and for what he has achieved to date, and he has been an absolute professional. It is about understanding that historically this has always been a unique role and the decision was made to reintegrate him as a single role. last year.

“Covid-19 has greatly disrupted people and sports. Covid-19 is not fair. There are entire cohorts of athletes who will never attend the Olympics, when it has been their sole objective for a period of their lives.”

“In that sense, on a personal level, I’m gutted by Des, so I understand that reaction on a personal level, but I think most people will appreciate the strategic opportunity and that this is something that had to happen.”

The All Whites and OlyWhites roles were not combined for the 2008 and 2012 Olympic seasons, but were integrated in 2014, when Anthony Hudson was named, and remained as in 2018, when Schmid was named.