The
All Whites will play their first international since June last year,
with a friendly match against Jamaica scheduled for February 29 in
Auckland.
Jamaica Football Federation president Horace Burrell
announced the fixture in Kingston, Jamaica on Wednesday, and the fixture
is also listed on the Fifa website.
New Zealand Football has yet to confirm the match, and could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Jamaica,
also known as the Reggae Boyz, are ranked 52nd in the world and have
two matches against Cuba on February 22 and 24 before leaving for New
Zealand.
Burrell told the Jamaica Observer that the match against
the All Whites would be a good rehearsal for World Cup qualifying. The
fourth-placed team in Jamaica's CONCACAF confederation are scheduled to
play off against the top Oceania team for a berth in the 2014 tournament
in Brazil.
The All Whites' last international was a 0-3 loss to
Australia eight months ago, and they have slipped steadily down the Fifa
rankings to their current 118th.
New Zealand's 2014 World Cup
qualifying campaign begins with the Oceania Nations Cup against Papua
New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji scheduled for Fiji in June.
NZN