Football Ferns in good spirits after hotel fire

Pullman Hotel
Photo: RNZ / Eli Orzessek

The New Zealand team were in good spirits after a fire at their hotel forced them to evacuate briefly on Saturday night at the FIFA World Cup.

The team sheltered at a restaurant near their Pullman Hotel in Auckland after evacuating at around 8 p.m.

New Zealand police apprehended a suspect in connection with the fire and the individual was facing arson and burglary charges, New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell said.

There was no apparent link between the incident and the team or tournament.

“All of the players and staff are well and healthy. Trained well today in the sunshine, which was welcome as well, and are looking in good shape,” Pragnell said.

“Another curveball in the last three days,” he added, in an apparent reference to a shooting in which three people were killed near the Norway team hotel in Auckland hours ahead of the tournament kick-off match on Thursday.

The fire interrupted an otherwise dream few days for the Ferns after securing their first-ever World Cup win on Thursday with a stunning 1-0 upset of former champions Norway in front of a record home crowd at Eden Park.

They face the Philippines in Wellington on Tuesday, with a country that is typically more interested in rugby sitting up and paying attention.

“If you put on a show like that and I think the World Cup coming to New Zealand, I think it’s kind of just thrown football into people’s faces,” said defender C.J. Bott. “I’m not surprised that everyone’s got on board.”

Bott, who said she had watched a replay of Hannah Wilkinson’s game winner probably “over a hundred times,” said the Norway game set a new standard for the team as they try to navigate their way out of the group stage.

“We definitely don’t go down from there. And I think as cliche as it is, the sky’s the limit for us,” said Bott.

-Reuters