"People think of us as a rugby country, and probably as hobbits, but that allows us to go in with that underdog mentality, fearless." Matt Fejos didn't set out to build a supporters' movement. He just maxed out a $1,000 student credit card on 32 match tickets in 2009 and grabbed some coveralls. Fifteen years later, the Flying Kiwis are heading to the World Cup.
The group takes its name from the deliberate irony: the kiwi, New Zealand's national bird, can't fly. Neither, by most footballing logic, should a team ranked 85th in the world be competing on the game's biggest stage. That's exactly the point.
Born from a qualifying night, built over a decade
It started with a Bahrain playoff. After a 0-0 first leg, New Zealand needed a home win to reach the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Fejos wanted noise in the stands — proper noise — so he bought the tickets, made the banners, and the Flying Kiwis were born almost by accident.
What followed was a slow accumulation of believers spread across the globe. A group of 30 made it to the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia, where locals organised a fan football match between the two sets of supporters. Fejos describes it as a turning point — not just following a team, but realising that in distant places, they might be the first New Zealanders anyone had ever met. That carries weight.
Rugby still dominates New Zealand's sporting identity, and there's no deep-rooted football culture to draw from. So the Flying Kiwis built their own. Small numbers, high unity. "There's advantages to being so small — we can be really unified," Fejos says, and it reads less like a consolation and more like a genuine tactical observation.
Group G isn't doing New Zealand any favours
The All Whites land in Group G against Belgium (ranked 9th), Iran (21st) and Egypt (29th). On paper, New Zealand are the clear outsiders in every fixture. Any punter eyeing World Cup group stage markets should treat New Zealand's qualification chances with clear eyes — the gap in rankings is significant, not cosmetic.
But Fejos points to something the rankings don't capture: where these players are now competing. New Zealand's squad is no longer made up of domestic players playing weekend football in Wellington. These are men who train under pressure, week in and week out, in top European leagues. That breeds a different kind of composure.
- New Zealand are ranked 85th in the world
- Group G opponents: Belgium (9th), Iran (21st), Egypt (29th)
- The Flying Kiwis have followed the national team since a pivotal 2009 World Cup qualifier against Bahrain
- Around 30 supporters travelled to Russia for the 2017 Confederations Cup
Whether that composure translates into results against Belgium remains the real question. It probably won't. But the Flying Kiwis aren't travelling to Qatar because they expect a trophy. They're going because a flightless bird showed up at the World Cup, and that deserves to be loud.
