Time for NZ World Cup bid

BY SAM BUCKLE

Football in New Zealand must aim high. It must be ambitious. And right now, we should be aiming to host a Fifa World Cup. No, this is not comic fantasy.

As we know, Australia has launched a bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Its bid was typically Australian: brash and undaunted. "We are Australians, of course we can host the World Cup. Let's just get on with it." You have to admire the audacity. However, despite creating quite a stir and making an obvious impression on Fifa with its preliminary bid, there are increasingly strong signals that the upstarts from Down Under will be not be permitted to turn global football order on its head. Last week, Fifa president Sepp Blatter suggested it was likely only European countries will be considered as candidates to host the 2018 World Cup finals. There was follow-up in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday.

This is New Zealand's opportunity.

I suspect Football Federation Australia (FFA) always felt 2018 was a helluva long shot. Europe is due that World Cup, with 2010 going to Africa and 2014 to South America - even if Asia is an increasingly powerful football bloc. The Australians' real target will be 2022 (as should be ours). But 2018 provided a rallying point and an opportunity for Australia to establish its credentials.

2022 is Asia's World Cup. It will be 20 years and five World Cups since Japan and South Korea co-hosted the only previous Asian World Cup. That's what the FFA really wants. Yet it is not the only member of the Asian Football Confederation keen on grabbing the big prize. South Korea, Indonesia and Qatar have all applied to host in 2022 - and there's plenty of time for others to enter the fray.

Personally, I have no doubt Australia would deliver a better World Cup than any Asian competitior. It has the infrastructure, the commercial knowhow as well as the ideal sports and tourism culture. Unfortunately (perhaps fortunately for us), Fifa will have other considerations, some political. For all its bridge-building with Asian football, Australia still remains an outsider in the Asian confederation. I have no idea exactly who owes whom what within Asian football or global football for that matter, but I doubt Australia can count on the support of Asia for its bid. After all, it's only been part of the confederation for four years, it's already grabbed one of the 4.5 precious World Cup qualifying berths and now it wants to take the only World Cup that Asia will see in the next 30 years.

Australia does, however, have a certain advantage over its Asian rivals. It is the only country that could involve Oceania (aka New Zealand) in a World Cup. Of course, Australia would prefer to host alone, but at a certain price it becomes worthwhile to trade a handful of World Cup matches for Oceania's political support and the opportunity to sell Fifa the concept of a World Cup that reaches right into football's sixth confederation and forgotten region. What's the price of extra insurance against the vagaries of Fifa politics or the powerful money of a Middle Eastern bid?

So, my starting point for negotiation is one group (six games), plus a second-round match and a quarterfinal. And we will even forgo automatic qualification as a host country. That's just how reasonable we can be!

Thanks to the Rugby World Cup, we already have two stadiums that meet Fifa's capacity requirements. Plus, the government would be obliged to front up with the cash to sufficiently augment Westpac Stadium given its willingness to hurl hundreds of millions at rugby and the America's Cup. And, yes I've heard Fifa don't like joint bids. Fortunately, Fifa does like to be flexible and take all considerations into account.

Of course, there will be massive obstacles, challenges, political and commercial realities etc etc etc. But the prize is enormous and the cost of being proactive and beginning to engage with the FFA is nothing. You cannot predict at this point how the 2022 bid process will unfold, who will bid, how the votes will fall, but it's possible that the stars could align favourably. What we do know is you don't get if you don't ask.

The moment Australia's bid for the 2018 bid is formally turned down is the moment the FFA will be reviewing its 2022 strategy. It is also the moment we (that's New Zealand Football and the Oceania Football Confederation) should be knocking on their door. I hope New Zealand Football can be as bold in setting its sights on less than an eighth of a World Cup as the FFA has been in going after the whole damn thing.