New Zealand Football advises on fake story of Chief Executive's resignation

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New Zealand Football advises on fake story of Chief Executive’s resignation

January 15, 2018

Legal / Sport / Technology /

A news item reporting that New Zealand Football Chief Executive Andy Martin had resigned was not a hack of its website but rather the illusion of a bogus article according to the governing body.

A story published last week that suggested Martin had resigned, with the headline ‘Andy Martin resigns as CEO’, was widely reported as being a ‘hack’.

However, New Zealand Football (NZF) today issued a statement advising that “the news story ... was fabricated by a person who made the bogus article appear as if it was from New Zealand Football’s website to anyone who followed their specific URL.

“Since the article was not published on the NZF website, people could not find this article by visiting the NZF site. They needed to follow or be sent the bogus URL.”

The statement went on to advise that “reports that the New Zealand Football website had been ‘hacked’ are incorrect.”

The article said the resignation was effective immediately leading New Zealand Football to take to social media to confirm the news was not true.

NZF tweeted “we would like to confirm that CEO Andy Martin has not resigned. We are looking into a potential hack of our website.”

NZF’s statement from today advised “(we) have been working with website provider Sportsground to create a new digital platform for the country’s largest sport in 2018, take the issue of website integrity very seriously.

“New Zealand Football and Sportsground have investigated the incident and identified the potential offender.”

Image: Andy Martin.

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