Oceania will stage a nine-team tournament at Qatar in March to decide which team advances to an intercontinental playoff for a spot at the World Cup finals.
The winners of the March 14-30 competition will face the fourth-placed team from the CONCACAF region, which features sides from North and Central America, and the Caribbean.
But the scheduling of the tournament, with the first matches falling outside the international window, means some of the All Whites' key players - including Chris Wood and Sarpreet Singh - will likely miss the start of the tournament.
FIFA has granted the Oceania Football Confederation a one-day extension to the March international window, scheduled for March 21-29, to allow teams to call up overseas-based players from the final round of group matches onwards.
All Whites coach Danny Hay has slammed the scheduling of the tournament, saying it devalues the competition and leaves his team at a significant disadvantage.
"This would happen nowhere else in the world," Hay says. "I'm here in Denmark at the moment and trying to explain how this has transpired - nobody can get their head around it.
"I spoke with the Danish Football Federation today and they were just bamboozled. Imagine saying to the Danish national team that you've got World Cup qualifying, but you can't pick your best players?
"For me and our players, it's highly disappointing."
Professional clubs aren't obligated to release their players for fixtures outside the official FIFA-mandated international windows.
In a worst-case scenario, Hay may be forced to start the tournament with side strictly comprised of amateur players.
"Every single player that I've called up to date is a professional player," Hay notes. "They're operating in professional environments, but clubs aren't going to be willing to hand over their players in the middle of the season.
"We're going to try to negotiate with clubs and coaches, but the reality is they don’t have to hand them over and that’s going to be really tough."
In the preliminary competition draw, New Zealand have landed in Group B, alongside New Caledonia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Group A includes Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu, while Tonga and Cook Islands will contest the final spot.
The winners of each group will play for the right to advance to take on the fourth-placed CONCACAF qualifier for a spot at Qatar 2022.
Details of the schedule are yet to be released.
New Zealand were the last team from the region to qualify for the World Cup, when they appeared in South Africa 2010. They missed out on a place in Russia in 2018, after losing to Peru in a playoff.
Reuters/Newshub.
