Jitka Klimková, Head Coach of New Zealand Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimkova is leaving with three years left on her contract of her own accord, she was not pushed out, according to New Zealand Football.
After months of turmoil, Klimkova finally ended her Football Ferns coaching career on Friday when she officially resigned.
But she will remain with New Zealand Football for another six months in a different role supporting the high performance department and national team activity.
She joined the New Zealand side on a six-year contract - the first time a coach at been offered such a lengthy time in charge.
Klimkova was hired with two Football World Cup cycles in mind but she has left after a disappointing showing at the World Cup New Zealand co-hosted with Australia in 2023.
Her departure has been drawn out and New Zealand Football chief executive officer Andrew Pragnell said the organisation would reflect on how it was handled.
Klimkova initially temporarily stepped away from the Football Ferns in May - just days before the team were due to play Japan in Spain - due to an employment-related matter.
An investigation was commissioned by New Zealand Football and carried out by an independent workplace investigator and Klimkova was cleared to return in June. Only she never did.
Less than three weeks after giving her the go-ahead to guide the Football Ferns at another significant tournament - the Olympics - coaching duties were instead picked up by assistant coach Michael Mayne.
"Employment investigations are always tricky," Pragnell said.
"You've got to observe everyone's rights, you've got to allow people space and time so these things don't always play quite naturally with international sporting fixtures," he said of the back and forward since May.
"It's 100 percent her own decision she's done three years at the helm, won our first-ever game at senior world cup, transitioned 18 new Football Ferns into the team and she goes with our best wishes."
Is Pragnell comfortable to have Klimkova still in the broader New Zealand women's programme? "Absolutely."
Can she leave before six months if a better offer comes her way? "I hope she doesn't leave."
Pragnell wanted to drill into Klimkova's "institutional knowledge" over the next six months she was still there.
"With head coaches you hire them and then when they leave they take all their staff, they take all their knowledge and they move on and we really want to enter into a period of campaign planning [for the next world cup] Jitka has a huge amount of institutional knowledge with her and we want to make sure we get the best of that ... she can add a lot of technical and tactical knowledge to that."
Pragnell said he was a "huge believer in continuity" but the next coach would "typically" be given a four-year contract.
A new coach will not be advertised for until next year with Mayne staying on as interim coach in the meantime.
"I certainly think having a coach stay through until 2027 will be key," Pragnell said of the next appointment.
He wanted a coach to be recruited to fit with the team's long-term plan rather than the other way around.
Pragnell said New Zealand Football needed to do more to support coaches at all levels of the game from grassroots to the national sides.
Despite the Football Ferns having a history of lot of turnover with coaching staff Pragnell still thought the role would be attractive to prospective candidates.
Getting all people on and off the field on the same page was the way forward according to Pragnell.
"I think the biggest piece is alignment in all of this we had a campaign plan through until 2023 (world cup) but I think when we look back at it it could have been more robust and if you get a plan in place that has alignment from the national team player right through to the boardroom on what we are looking to see in terms of performance metrics not just on the field but at every level whether it's tactics, culture or anything else that is the most critical feature and getting full alignment in that space will be where we put a lot of energy over the next couple of months."
Just how far apart the players and the boardroom were, Pragnell did not know.
"There's still work to be done until we do the process it's hard for me to say. I think ensuring we have a really long-term plan around our player development, what the squad might look like in 2027 is key to all of that."
Mayne would be part of the planning and in contact with the current playing group but he would not do it alone.
"There is certainly some organisational responsibilities we will be reaching out to the full playing squad, spread around the world as they are, in October and November to get that campaign planning underway and get them engaged and get their buy-in to the process as well."
