Kicking off World Cup campaign

Early in our interview, Frank van Hattum leans over to Michael Glading, and asks him what name they should come up with – does he like the sound of Project 2010?

It's so early in the planning of New Zealand's first World Cup campaign in 28 years that the chairman and chief executive of NZ Football haven't quite come up with a snazzy title for their blueprint for next June's finals.

Straight after talking to the Sunday Star-Times, van Hattum, Glading and vice-chairman Fred De Jong were sitting down to start the preparations.

For while it was only last Saturday that New Zealand beat Bahrain to secure a place in South Africa, today marks 200 days until the kick-off in Johannesburg, and the Fifa website already has a countdown clock on its front page, ticking down the days.

Once van Hattum works out how to do it, he will copy it across to his desktop computer at oil giant BP. Not that BP have seen much of him: he estimates he's spending 30 hours a week, unpaid, on football business.

Glading's mother died last week, having ensured she lived long enough to hear the All Whites' success on the radio. It says much about what needs to be done that Glading returned to work the next day.

Both have a lot to do, and it's likely the staff at NZ Football's modest offices at North Harbour Stadium will swell quickly with a specialist project team to oversee the commercial, ticketing, marketing, media and logistical demands of the planet's biggest sporting event.

"It's a project like any other and the first 15 days, when you scope it, are the most important," says Van Hattum. "Within the next week, we need to be in a position to know exactly where we are going. Not know all the answers, but know how people are going to get those answers."

VAN HATTUM will fly to South Africa late next week for the tournament draw. With Wellington Phoenix telling coach Ricki Herbert he can't go, Van Hattum may be accompanied only by high performance boss Alex Chiet. Wealthier countries may send delegations of over 20 officials to the draw. "It's not like rugby union doing their draw in a little room: this is huge," he says, with the authority of a man who was confronted by 12 Miss World winners when he attended the draw for the much-smaller Confederations Cup.

He should return from the draw with some promising leads for pre-tournament friendlies, briefings on hotels, match venues and training grounds. By then, Glading will have established the project team and Chiet will be working on charting the needs of every player in Ricki Herbert's squad.

His big issue is finding football for the core of the squad in the Australian A-League, the New Zealand NZFC and American Major League Soccer, all competitions which finish in March. The options include a long national camp, or finding temporary deals offshore.

"It's a tough one," admits van Hattum, with Herbert wanting more than just a three-week preparation for the tournament.

It's clear that money will not be an issue: van Hattum pledges that preparations won't be "under-cut", then underlines his expectations, saying he expects at least one victory at the tournament and adding: "I know it's a big mountain, but we are used to big mountains and we have to go there with a belief, not excuses."

Ironically, the other key player in these early stages, commercial manager Peter Hunt, is on holiday.

"He will wish he wasn't," grins Glading. "He won't know what has hit him because I am setting up appointments for him."

Glading has already fielded sponsorship calls from three major companies this week, one a multi-national, but warns: "We don't want deals that last 200 days, we want to develop ... long-term meaningful relationships, rather than the quick cash-in."

After some tumultuous times, long-term stability is the theme with football's new bosses. "The last two years was about re-establishing credibility, so every time you pick up the paper it's not about football stabbing itself in the back again," says van Hattum.

"We needed to find out our value... the board wants more sustainable funding. What are the limits? What are our opportunities? This is day three, so all these questions are to be answered."

What they have already decided is what to do with the expected $10m windfall from competing in the finals. Under a longstanding arrangement, about half will go to the players, and the rest is destined for the bank, with van Hattum envisaging an endowment fund for the game.

NZ Football nearly went under two years ago, dug out by a $1.5m loan by Kiwibank and substantial grants from Sparc. "It's important there is always something in the cupboard so we don't go through the boom-bust cycle," says Glading.

"In the past, when the game has had money, it has ultimately spent it. We want to get to the point where the organisation is not living hand-to-mouth and we can think long-term."

The Kiwibank loan, not due until April 2011, may be paid off midway through next year when the sport may become officially debt-free, and NZ Football is also likely to record a bigger-than-predicted surplus in their forthcoming annual report.

While both men are crowing about what they reckon was the biggest sporting occasion ever in New Zealand last weekend, they are not planning any big declarations about football overtaking the traditional big four sports.

In van Hattum's words: "The board is pretty adamant about this: this is not a pissing contest with other sports ... will we ever take rugby off its perch? No, we won't, and we are not aiming for that."

- © Fairfax NZ News