The former New Zealand Knights and English professional player has acted as a technical assistant in the All Whites camp this year and will take the reins of the Oly Whites for March’s qualifiers in Fiji.
Emblen’s appointment is currently to the end of the nine-team qualification tournament which New Zealand must win to earn Oceania’s sole spot at the 16-team finals in London.
Raul Blanco, the All Whites technical advisor, will perform the same role for the Olympic team, while other staff will be confirmed in due course.
If it qualifies for the finals, New Zealand’s Olympic men’s team could feature up to eight full All Whites. Tommy Smith, Chris Wood, Costa Barbarouses, Marco Rojas and Jake Gleeson all fit the U-23 criteria and up to three overage players can be brought in for London.
But Emblen will likely be without most of his overseas-based rising stars – clubs are not required to release players for the qualifiers – and will rely instead on players drawn from the ASB Premiership and American universities.
“The conditions in Fiji will be different,” Emblen says.
“I’ve been lucky enough to coach teams away in the Pacific and it’s a tough programme when you go overseas. The elements and conditions are against you a little bit but I’m confident that with the quality of the ASB Premiership boys and the lads from the US we can go over there and qualify for London.
“I want to make some of these players from the Olympic team into All Whites. As well as qualifying, it’s an important part of my job to help players break into the international scene and playing in the Olympic Games next year would be a great way to do that.”
New Zealand chief executive officer Grant McKavanagh says Emblen’s mixture of domestic and elite experience will prove crucial in the country qualifying for the men’s Olympic football tournament for just the second time.
“Neil knows the domestic landscape well and has a track record with Waitakere of getting the best out of young players,” he says.
“We’ll need every ounce of that skill to get through a tough qualification group. He has also worked with the national team and will be able to add consistency across the two environments. That will be important given the number of players we’ll have playing in both teams.”
The Football Ferns national women’s team also face Olympic qualifiers in March but have already been seeded to the final stage as winners of the OFC Women’s Nations Cup. They will meet the winner of an Olympic preliminary tournament home and away on dates yet to be confirmed.
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand football go to www.nzfootball.co.nz

Share