{"id":424105,"date":"2026-05-12T15:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/424105\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:51:16","slug":"wellington-phoenix-delete-social-media-post-critical-of-chelsea-women-eden-park-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/424105\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellington Phoenix delete social media post critical of Chelsea women Eden Park match"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wellington Phoenix have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

\"AA now-deleted post on the Wellington Phoenix’s X account appeared to criticise the decision for the Chelsea FC Women to play an Auckland FC Women’s Invitational XI. Photo \/ @WgtnPhoenixFC<\/p>\n

Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker confirmed there will be a women\u2019s team in the A-League for the 2027\/28<\/a> season, based in Auckland, and said the club was approached by events company TEG Sport to take part in the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were approached by TEG to do it and we saw the opportunity in that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think on the Wellington Phoenix women\u2019s team, I think they\u2019ve had a fantastic season and I hope them all the best for the final coming up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they can do it and we as a fellow New Zealand team are fully behind them to go and win over there in Melbourne<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker could not confirm whether Phoenix players could take part in the Invitational XI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a great question which I cannot answer, literally for the reasons being that first [Invitational XI coach Jenny Bindon] has to pick them, and then they have to have a conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m guessing if they\u2019re out of contract with Wellington, it won\u2019t be an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an exhibition match, it is an invitational side, so that in itself means that there\u2019s a sort of open scope to pick players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister for Tourism and Hospitality Louise Upston said she hopes there are opportunities for the Phoenix to host similar matches in the future, but pointed to this fixture being part of a wider event held in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe International Football Festival is being hosted in Auckland<\/a>, but look, I\u2019m really keen that this will be incredibly successful and they\u2019ll have opportunities in the future to play the Phoenix women,\u201d Upston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to Auckland FC, it\u2019s the International Football Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the opportunity to profile a world-leading women\u2019s team in Chelsea, which will be great and it\u2019s really the opportunity to highlight that we want to see more fans, we want to provide more opportunities for fans to see these world-class events, and it also demonstrates that New Zealand\u2019s got what it takes to host events like this, which is great for New Zealand and our reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The invitational XI, coached by Bindon, a former Football Fern, will include players from Auckland FC\u2019s <\/a>Women\u2019s Talent Development Centre<\/a> and comes after Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s match against Auckland FC on July 26 at the same stadium.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix women\u2019s team are set to play Melbourne City in their A-League grand final on May 16<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wellington Phoenix have been contacted for comment. A now-deleted post on the Wellington Phoenix’s X account appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9344,15442,51,642,39307,11728,100810,1453,28635,8142,305,139153,10543,1073,111,139,69,1118,8143,57694,5415,3117,1072,213,52,2248,2834],"class_list":["post-424105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-announcement","tag-appearing","tag-auckland","tag-august","tag-chelsea","tag-critical","tag-criticise","tag-delete","tag-deleted","tag-eden","tag-have","tag-invitational","tag-match","tag-media","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-park","tag-phoenix","tag-playing","tag-post","tag-social","tag-sports","tag-wellington","tag-women","tag-womens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}