New Zealand men's national football team

New Zealand's first international football match was played in Dunedin at the old Caledonian Ground on 23 July 1904 against a team representing New South Wales. New Zealand lost by the game's only goal, but drew with the same team 3–3 in a game at Athletic Park, Wellington seven days later.[5] The following year the team played a Wellington representative side on 10 June before embarking on a tour of Australia, during which they played eleven representative sides, including three "test matches" against New South Wales. Of these three matches they won one, lost one, and drew one.

A New Zealand national team did not play again until 1922, when New Zealand played three official full internationals against Australia, played at Carisbrook in Dunedin, Athletic Park in Wellington, and Auckland Domain. The results were two 3–1 wins to New Zealand and a 1–1 draw in Wellington.[6][7] In 1927, Canada became the second team to play in New Zealand as they played in four official matches with a win and a draw.[8]

New Zealand would become one of the founder members of the Oceania Football Confederation in 1966 which was founded between Charlie Dempsey and his Australian colleague Jim Bayutti in founding the federation.[9]

At the beginning of the 1980s, the All Whites were on a good run of consecutive victories, but with the organisation of the 1980 Oceania Cup in New Caledonia, New Zealand ended up having a very disastrous campaign, losing 1–3 and 0–4 for Tahiti and Fiji respectively, and in the last round without a possible qualification for the final, they beat the Solomon Islands by a large score of 6–1. And mainly due to the not very good campaign in this year's Merdeka Tournament, the team did not have a good reputation, according to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, up until the 1980s "the high visibility of British migrants in the All Whites, as well as in the game's administration and domestic club scene, attracted negative comments". Even so, the team managed to advance to the final phase of the qualifiers for the 1982 World Cup, having a practically perfect campaign without losing a match, highlighted by the 3–3 draw and the 1–0 victory against their team rival Australia, and a great victory against Fiji by the score of 13–0 in the last round to guarantee a place in the next phase. For the last phase, the All Whites competed hard against China PR, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and thanks to a large victory against the Saudis (5–0), they had to compete in a play-off match against the Chinese due to the draw of points and on goal difference, and with decisive goals from Steve Wooddin and Wynton Rufer, they won 2–1, and achieved a historic classification for España '82. In their 1982 FIFA World Cup campaign, they lost all three games conceding 12 goals and scoring just 2. Of the 22-man squad, 11 members were born in the United Kingdom, including seven in England alone. This included the captain Steve Sumner and striker Steve Wooddin, who had both played club football in England before immigrating. However, over the following decades the composition of the national squad changed and "the face of football became increasingly Kiwi".[10]

Since the 1990s, United States college soccer has played a significant role in the development of New Zealand players. This influence began when former Scotland international Bobby Clark returned to the US after his 1994–96 stint as New Zealand head coach to take the head coaching job at Stanford University (he now holds the same position at Notre Dame). Clark began recruiting in New Zealand, and former New Zealand national players Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott played for him at Stanford. The trend that Clark started has continued to the present; more than two dozen New Zealanders are now playing for NCAA Division I men's programmes in the US.[11] A common next step in these players' career paths is a stint in Major League Soccer; ESPN soccernet journalist Brent Latham speculated in a March 2010 story that New Zealand's 2010 FIFA World Cup squad could have more MLS players than the US squad.[11][12] However, Latham's speculation did not prove true, as only one MLS player made the New Zealand squad for the World Cup. New Zealand formerly competed against Australia for top honours in the OFC. However, after Australia left to join the AFC in 2006, New Zealand were left as the only seeded team in the OFC. New Zealand qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup though exited the competition after the first round despite being the only team not to lose a game during the tournament because they drew 1–1 vs defending champions Italy, Slovakia and 0–0 vs Paraguay while eventual champions Spain lost to Switzerland. New Zealand notably finished above Italy in their group as Italy lost to Slovakia in their final group match and finished with two points compared to New Zealand's three.[13]

After a very positive cycle for the All Whites, the team competed for the 2012 OFC Nations Cup as big favourites to win the title, doing well in the group stage, winning the first two games by slim scores (1–0 and 2–1), and a 1–1 draw against the Mandates Salomonense, however in the next phase, they faced New Caledonia in the semi-final, where they suffered a shameful defeat by 0–2, with goals from Bertrand Kaï in the 60th minute, and Georges Gope-Fenepej in the 90+2 minute to seal the defeat which was called "Horror in Honiara". Even beating the Solomon Islands in the play-off for third place, this did not prevent the dismissal of the coach at the time Ricki Herbert, where after this embarrassing defeat, they would also be eliminated in the intercontinental play-off for the 2014 World Cup for Mexico by the score of 3–9 on aggregate.

In August 2014, Anthony Hudson was appointed manager of the All Whites. Hudson's first game in charge of the national team was a 3–1 defeat away to Uzbekistan in September 2014. As a result of the All Whites playing "just three matches" in the previous year, which was "the least of any country in world football",[14] and having "seven months without a match" the All Whites dropped to 161 in the FIFA world rankings.[15][16] The All Whites went on to win the 2016 OFC Nations Cup, winning four matches with the final being won via a penalty shootout after a 0–0 draw against Papua New Guinea, conceding only 1 goal, from a penalty, in the process. New Zealand's victory saw them crowned Oceania champions making New Zealand the most successful national team in the competition's history, having won the tournament five times, and also saw them qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. The All Whites moved up 54 places in the world rankings in July and achieved 88th in the FIFA world rankings, the highest ranking in three years, on the back of the OFC Nations Cup victory that qualified them for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.[17][18]

After a disappointing tournament at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup where they finished bottom of their group which featured Russia, Mexico and Portugal, the national team fell 27 places to 122nd.[19] In September 2017, New Zealand won the OFC Final against the Solomon Islands with an aggregate score of 8–3 to qualify for the inter-continental play-off qualifier against Peru, the fifth-ranked nation from the South America's qualifiers.[20][21] After holding Peru off in the first leg, they would go to lose 2–0 in the second leg to be eliminated from competition as Peru became the last team to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[22][23]

After the All Whites' stoppage for almost two years, they returned to play friendlies (in 2021), obtaining positive results in their three (four counting against Algeria A') games played in that year. With the complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup had to be held in the host country itself, Qatar, where the Kiwis managed to win all the games, as well as breaking artillery records, when the forward Chris Wood, became the All Whites' top scorer, after scoring twice against Fiji, surpassing the previous record holder, Vaughan Coveny.

With the continental victory, they qualified for the inter-confederation play-offs, where they disputed the vacancy against Costa Rica. They started by conceding a goal in the 3rd minute of the game to Joel Campbell, but New Zealand began to pressure the game a lot, and in the 39th minute of the game, Chris Wood scored a goal after a bad kick by Yeltsin Tejeda. However, his goal was disallowed when the video assistant referee (VAR) showed that Matthew Garbett had fouled Óscar Duarte before the goal.[24] With the final whistle of the game, the New Zealanders failed to qualify for the cup, which was their third consecutive elimination in the inter-confederation play-offs. They were eliminated by Mexico in 2014, by Peru in 2018, and by Costa Rica in this 2022 edition.[25] After the qualifiers, the All Whites played a home and away series against their rivals Socceroos to mark the 100th anniversary of the first meeting between the two nations, which was first played in Dunedin in 1922.

New Zealand's traditional home colours are white with a black trim, while its away kits are usually reversed, featuring black with a white trim. This reversal of the colour scheme by New Zealand's football team is due to the fact that black was traditionally reserved for referees by FIFA.

During the qualification for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, the team appeared for the first time in an all white uniform against Taiwan in 1981. This led a commentator to dub them the "All Whites", a play on the traditional name "All Blacks" used for the national rugby team.[27] The name stuck, and was popularised in the song "Marching off to Spain" with its chant refrain "Kiwis! All Whites!". More recently, the nickname has been scrutinised by New Zealand Football due to its unintended racial overtones.[27][28]

New Zealand's long time rivals are Trans-Tasman neighbours Australia.[29] The two teams' history dates back to 1922, where they first met in both their international debuts. The rivalry between the Socceroos (Australia) and the All Whites (New Zealand) is part of a wider friendly rivalry between the geographical neighbours Australia and New Zealand, which applies not only to sport but to the culture of the two countries. The rivalry was intensified when Australia and New Zealand were both members of the OFC, regularly competing in OFC Nations Cup finals and in FIFA World Cup qualifications, where only one team from the OFC progressed to the World Cup. Since Australia left the OFC to join the AFC in 2006, competition between the two teams has been less frequent. However, the rivalry between the two teams is still strong, with the occasional match receiving much media and public attention.[30] The rivalry extends to club football, with New Zealand's only fully professional team, the Wellington Phoenix, playing in the Australian A-League.

The main supporters group of the New Zealand national team are known as the 'White Noise'.[31][32][33][34] White Noise was formed in November 2007[35] with the supporters group of the Wellington Phoenix, 'Yellow Fever', rebranding themselves when the national sides play.[36][37][38]

New Zealand does not have a dedicated national stadium, instead the team plays at different venues throughout the country for exhibition or tournament purposes. In recent years, major international matches have usually been rotated around various large grounds, including Sky Stadium in Wellington and North Harbour Stadium in Auckland. International matches have also been played at the Mount Smart Stadium and Eden Park in Auckland.

The following players have been selected in the squad for the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup in June 2024.[43]

Caps and goals updated as of 21 June 2024 after the match against the Vanuatu.

The following players have been called up within the last 12 months and remain eligible for selection.

For the all-time record of the national team against opposing nations, see the team's all-time record page.

As of 26 March 2024[46]