Capital Football

The Whole of Football Plan was introduced in 2011 and has been in place for almost 15 years. Over the past 18 months, NZF have undertaken detailed analysis of the WOF guidance. The analysis has attempted to understand how the guidance is currently being brought to life across New Zealand, the impact this is having on player, coach, referee and volunteer experience and development, what is happening internationally that we could learn from, how the global professional game is progressing and what the impact would be on any potential changes to our WOF guidance, particularly within the player pathway.

In quarter four of 2024, NZF presented the findings and recommendations during 16 club hui’s across the country spanning Whangarei to Invercargill. An executive summary report and a video presentation of the findings and recommendations can be found by following the links below.

Player Pathway Changes:

In the player pathway, there is strong evidence linked to player motivation, enjoyment, skill development outcomes and international best practice to suggest that we should amend our formal game format guidance to stay in smaller sided formats for longer and move to 11v11 football at a later age. When this is overlayed with player characteristics at different ages, there is a strong indication that there should be:• An increased focus on individual fundamental skill and movement development between the ages of 4-7, supporting Station Rotation (SR) and the 3v3 game format;• An increased focus on individual skill development in small groups between the ages of 8-11 supporting 5v5 and 7v7 game formats; and• A deliberate transition through puberty for 11-14 (girls) and 12-15 (boys) year olds, whereby a continued focus on skill development in a smaller 9v9 setting should happen before moving into 11v11 football at a later age either during, or post puberty.

New guidance for the player pathway recommends the use of Station Rotation and a 3v3 format continues at U6 and extends to include the U7 age group. It is recommended that a new 5v5 format that includes goal keepers is introduced for two years at U8 and U9. It is then recommended that the current 7v7 and 9v9 formats are pushed out by one year whereby players have two years of 7v7 at U10 and U11 (predominantly year 5 and 6) and two years of 9v9 at U12 and U13 (predominantly year 7 and 8), before entering 11v11 football at U14 (predominantly year 9). The guidance also recommends flexibility at U14 and U15 to deliver a 9v9 format in areas of lower player population such as girls only football and in regions with smaller player bases.

These recommendations will increase player actions in mixed football by approximately 43% and in girls only football by approximately 28%.

Education Pathway Changes:

Recommendations in the coach and referee development pathways center around, removing duplication, providing more learning for those operating in the junior space, aligning learning outcomes across football and futsal, and continuing to develop digital tools to connect and engage with our volunteers, coaches and referees. A specific focus on attracting and supporting females through the provision of female only coach and referee courses/pathways should be a priority to ensure the gap between male and female leaders in the game is reduced.

Player development programmes, quality of coaching and quality of officiating are all identified in Sport NZ’s Voice of Participant survey as key drivers that impact player experience. It is vital that we improve our coach and referee development systems to better suport the education of the coach and referee community to have positive impacts on our playing participants.

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