Andreas Heraf

Andreas Heraf (born 10 September 1967) is an Austrian football manager and former player.[1] He was previously the technical director for New Zealand Football and head coach for the New Zealand women's national football team[2]

Andreas Heraf
Personal information
Full name Andreas Heraf
Date of birth (1967-09-10) 10 September 1967
Place of birth Vienna, Austria
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Graphia Wien
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1988 Rapid Wien 55 (6)
1988–1990 First Vienna 76 (19)
1991 Austria Salzburg 11 (4)
1991–1994 Vorwärts Steyr 80 (23)
1994 Hannover 96 17 (3)
1995–1999 Rapid Wien 135 (21)
2000–2001 FC Kärnten 30 (0)
National team
1996–1998 Austria 11 (1)
Teams managed
2001–2002 1. FC Saarbrücken
2003–2005 Austria Lustenau
2005 SC Schwanenstadt
2006 FC Superfund
2006–2007 SC Schwanenstadt
2007–2008 SC-ESV Parndorf 1919
2008–2015 Austria U20
2015–2017 Austria U17
2017–2018 New Zealand women[note 1]
2018–2019 Floridsdorfer AC
2019– SV Ried (assistant)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

A defensive midfielder, Heraf started his professional playing career at Rapid Wien and moved to city rivals First Vienna in 1988. He then had half a season at Austria Salzburg, before joining Vorwärts Steyr. After another half season at German Second division side Hannover 96, he returned to Rapid Wien. In his first season back, the longhaired Heraf played in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners Cup Final against Paris St Germain in Brussels, which Rapid lost. He finished his career at FC Kärnten.

International career

He made his debut for Austria in an April 1996 friendly match against Hungary and was a participant at the 1998 FIFA World Cup but he did not play. He earned 11 caps. His first and only goal he scored versus Latvia 1997. Herafs last international was an October 1998 World Cup qualification match against San Marino.

Honours

Managerial career

After retiring, he became a manager. His clubs to date are Austria Lustenau (2003–05), SC Schwanenstadt (2005), FC Superfund (2006) and SC Schwanenstadt again (2006–07). After a few months at SC-ESV Parndorf 1919, he joined the Austrian U-20 set-up.

New Zealand women's national team

On April 24, 2017, Heraf was announced as the New Zealand Football technical director. Later that same year, he also become the coach for the New Zealand women's national football team.[3]

After the Football Ferns lost to Japan in June 2018, there was calls for Heraf to resign following his comments in the post match press conference, including that the team would never have the quality to compete with other teams and the size of New Zealand meant they could not compete.[4][5] He later stated he was misunderstood and that he would not resign.[6] On 19 June, a letter of complaint signed by at least ten players was sent to New Zealand Football, collated by the New Zealand Professional Footballers' Association.[7] Later that day, it was also announced that New Zealand Football were deliberately flouting a FIFA directive that Heraf should not be in charge of both roles at the same organisation.[8]

On 20 June, it emerged that the Players' Union had sent a strongly worded letter to New Zealand Football, instructing them to discontinue all communications with players, after Heraf and other New Zealand Football staff members were contacting players and strongly encouraging them not to write letters or issue any formal complaints.[9] That afternoon, it was announced that Heraf would be placed on special leave while an independent investigation was conducted into the allegations around bullying, intimidation and a culture of fear.[7][10]

On 31 July, it was announced that Heraf and New Zealand Football parted ways and that he would leave by the end of the week,[11] after thirteen players refused to play and complained about him.[12]

Footnotes
  1. Heraf first served as interim head coach for two matches in November 2017, alongside Gareth Turnbull. Heraf was officially appointed as New Zealand's head coach on 20 December 2017, with Turnbull appointed as assistant.

References
  1. "Heraf, Andreas" (in German). kicker.de. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  2. "Heraf signs on as Football Ferns coach". FIFA.com. 2017-12-20.
  3. Burgess, Michael (2 February 2018). "Meet the new kingmaker of New Zealand Football". NZ Herald. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  4. Gourdie, Andrew (15 June 2018). "Why Football Ferns coach Andreas Heraf must go". Newshub.
  5. Hyslop, Liam (10 June 2018). "Football Ferns coach says New Zealand will never compete with Japan's quality". Stuff.co.nz.
  6. O'Keeffe, Michael (12 June 2018). "Football Ferns coach Andreas Heraf fires back at criticism". Newshub.
  7. Burgess, Michael (19 June 2018). "Football Ferns bombshell: Coach Andreas Heraf set for suspension, inquiry to look into bullying allegations". NZ Herald.
  8. Steve Kilgallon, Dana Johnnsen (19 June 2018). "Under-fire Andreas Heraf's double New Zealand Football role breaks Fifa coaching directive". Stuff.co.nz.
  9. Burgess, Michael (20 June 2018). "Ferns scandal: New Zealand Football told to stop contacting Football Ferns players, with immediate effect". NZ Herald.
  10. "Andreas Heraf placed on 'special leave' as NZF announces Football Ferns review". Newshub. 20 June 2018.
  11. "Football Ferns' coach Andreas Heraf set to leave role". Radio Sport. 31 July 2018.
  12. "New Zealand women's coach resigns after 13 of squad refuse to play". BBC Sport. 31 July 2018.
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