Football World Cup: All Whites doing it for family and future generations

Hours after securing a Football World Cup berth for just the third time the All Whites and New Zealand Football's thoughts turned to family, finances and the future of the game.

Promises of top quality opposition in every international window and investment in the resources needed to prepare this group of "phenomenal" players to be competitive in the expanded 48-team world cup is what New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell is offering after "a world of opportunity" has opened up in front of his flagship team.

Pragnell wants to capitalise on "every single second" of preparation time.

"The team is going to this world cup not just to participate but to win games I firmly believe they have the potential to go into those knockout stages."

Pragnell said every world cup campaign is different and even though he was not with NZF the last time the All Whites qualified in 2010, he believes the relationship between the team and the head office has improved.

"We've grown a lot in maturity in that the team is now very close to the organisation and the level of resourcing is infinitely larger there is an expectation from this team that they'll play every single window.

"In the old days, a lot of people were operating on very little, so the coaching staff has grown enormously, management around the team, professional support and support services have grown enormously."

The money that NZF gets for the All Whites qualifying after such a long time is a helping hand for the organisation as well.

"While we are a much more robust organisation than we have been in the past and we don't rely solely on this prize money to survive, it allows us to more fundamentally invest into our federations, invest further into our competitions, invest further into our national teams and in particular give this group of players the resources they deserve. Which I think all Kiwis want to see because this is a group that can break history in terms of the world cup."

Coach Darren Bazeley forgot to set an alarm the morning after New Zealand' 3-0 win over New Caledonia. He woke with a jolt after only a few hours shut eye, remembering he still had a few more "responsibilities" to fulfil before he could take a minute to himself to reflect on what his team had achieved at Eden Park.

Bazeley had felt the expectation around getting the All Whites back to the world cup.

"What it has been like this last year I felt this real responsibility and weight of we need to qualify, we know we should qualify because of the route through Oceania and I just felt like that was my responsibility to ensure that happened."

Now, he has 15 months to ensure the team puts its best foot forward at the tournament which kicks off in June 2026.

"We know we need to go and perform and if we can win a game it will just ignite so much.

"It is a great opportunity for us to really continue to change the game here in New Zealand."

Family

The players say they were chasing their dreams of world cup qualification with family in mind - in the many forms that takes.

For captain Chris Wood, it is taking his best mate Tommy Smith's children on to the pitch when the All Whites walked out for the anthems on Monday because their dad was on the bench.

"It was nice for them to share the moment... We're very close and he's like a brother to me so his family is my family," Wood said.

By the time the All Whites step on the field at the world cup, Wood will have a daughter of his own.

For Kosta Barbarouses, it is his goal celebration for his daughters Luna and Lola.

He makes two L's with his fingers and thumbs.

"One is backwards you can't please everyone," he says.

Barbarouses' goal against New Caledonia came on Luna's fourth birthday.

"A couple of windows ago I missed Lola's first day at school so you miss these milestones but at the end it's all worth it. They probably don't understand now but they definitely will understand when they're a bit older."

For Eli Just, it is being on the field with his family in the stands.

"Most important for me [was] my parents were in the crowd... [in 2017] I was at the game watching as a fan with them against Peru. Four years before that, Mexico, and four years before that, Bahrain. So this is the first big playoff game that they've come to see without me sitting next to them which is pretty special."

For the team's youngest player, 20-year-old Tyler Bindon, it is following in his former Football Ferns goalkeeper mum Jenny's footsteps by getting New Zealand to the world cup.

"While the national anthem was going I was looking at my mum and I started tearing up a little bit and I had to get my head back in the game."

For Michael Boxall, it is sharing his first international goal and a hard-fought win with the broader football family.

"It's something we've expected of ourselves but [I'm] happy for everyone who showed up and turned it into a special night."

Wood said that type of bond is something the All Whites had been working on over the years.

"It's all about family, engaging with New Zealand that's one of our big things that's why when we come back here we try to do as much as possible with fans with the country in general because we know how big our heritage is and that can help us going forward both on the pitch and off the pitch."

Future

Half of the 2025 All Whites team was at the successful Bahrain qualifying game in Wellington in 2009 in the crowd.

33-year-old Wood said many of his younger team mates were inspired by the feats of the All Whites team that went to the 2010 world cup in South Africa.

"That could be exactly the same as the last couple of games. There could be kids in the crowd thinking, after seeing those results and a team going to the world cup, 'I want to be a part of that I want to be something like that'.

"So, that's the inspiration to the next generation and now there is an avenue to go there more often and why not, why can't they be there every single four years.

"It's nice to have that automatic entry, I wish we had it over the last 16 years of my career but it's good that it has finally come in and hopefully we can capitalise on that opportunity."

Wood sees world cup appearances as crucial to the future of New Zealand Football.

"I think that is the only way the brand is going to grow and the team is going to grow and get better, the more high quality opposition you play the better the team gets so it is going to be exciting."

Despite picking up an injury in the qualification final the Nottingham Forest striker, who is in a rich vein of goal-scoring form and could help his Premier League club return to the Champions League for the first time in 45 years, plans to make himself available for the All Whites' international friendlies in the lead-up to the world cup over the next year.

"That's the only way the team is going to be good is if we have all our players together and pulling in the same direction, so that's the plan and the opportunity we have to progress."

Legends

Members of the current All Whites team might end up as legends of the game but over the last little while Bazeley has been drawing some big international names to inspire his own high performing team.

"We've been giving the players some motivational things throughout the week and looking back at '82 and Steve Sumner scoring goals and then 2010 with Winnie [Winston Reid] scoring and Smeltzy [Shane Smeltz] scoring and obviously the Rory Fallon moment.

"We talked a lot about moments and can you have a moment in these games and can you make sure that we put ourselves in a position to have a moment worldwide. We've looked at clips of Ronaldo of Messi and Pele, Maradonna that all had these famous moments at a world cup.

"It's the pinnacle event for football, and probably sport, and these guys now have an opportunity to go do something on the world stage."

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