New Zealand Football calls for urgency in aligning school and club sport in the NZ Government Review of the COVID-19 guidelines

NZ Football supports the proposed changes announced today that enable unvaccinated school students to participate in school sport.

However, at the red setting of the current COVID-19 protection framework the rules for clubs are complex and prohibitive for large team sports, a discrepancy that New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell says would be impractical and could result in fewer young people able to access football and futsal.

“We followed the government guidelines when putting together our Guidance for Football and Futsal under the red setting of the COVID-19 Protection Framework. But it doesn’t make sense that school students are easily able to play school football or futsal, but then face barriers to attend large gatherings with their club, as could be the case under the proposed changes.

“Registrations for the winter season are almost upon us, and it’s imperative that we are aligned across school and club sport as to what these guidelines are, so we can enable as many people to participate as possible. If there is to be an adjustment of the current settings, which we support, it needs to take place with absolute urgency.

“After two years of disruption to sport, we want as many people as possible to be able to be involved in football and futsal, and we especially want young people able to participate. They’ve missed out enough over the last two years.”