Whilst it's nice to reminisce about the good bad old days, NZ football needs to have bigger ambitions than the past. 40,000 plus (an early guess) at Eden Park for a friendly in September will be testament to that.
The Socceroos used to play most of their games at that little concrete dump of a ground Olympic Park in Melbs. Capacity about 25,000. Contrast that to selling out Homebush (82,000) verus Uruguay in 2005 or same hosting Asian Cup final 2015. They pull in big crowds when hosting likes of Japan, Sth Korea, Saudi in Asian qualifying. The code has come a long way in our part of the world, and the aims more ambitious.
Having one full professional stable club with both mens & womens teams, maybe a 2nd pro club in a few years, teams going to age World Cups playing a good style and actually competing, co hosting a Womens World Cup - these are just some of the bench marks to show real progress in the code. Staying in OFC will always limit how far football can go in NZ, but of course joining AFC (discussed to death) won't be happening any time soon, if at all ever.
That will be the only good thing about a 48 team WC. A regular 4 yearly $US10M plus paycheck, that will allow NZF to plan ahead with some cash, and hopefully aim for actual AWs games in NZ against just more than just the OFC minnows. But for this next cycle it could be more of the same, which would be a real shame, given the talent in the team.
The Socceroos used to play most of their games at that little concrete dump of a ground Olympic Park in Melbs. Capacity about 25,000. Contrast that to selling out Homebush (82,000) verus Uruguay in 2005 or same hosting Asian Cup final 2015. They pull in big crowds when hosting likes of Japan, Sth Korea, Saudi in Asian qualifying. The code has come a long way in our part of the world, and the aims more ambitious.
Having one full professional stable club with both mens & womens teams, maybe a 2nd pro club in a few years, teams going to age World Cups playing a good style and actually competing, co hosting a Womens World Cup - these are just some of the bench marks to show real progress in the code. Staying in OFC will always limit how far football can go in NZ, but of course joining AFC (discussed to death) won't be happening any time soon, if at all ever.
That will be the only good thing about a 48 team WC. A regular 4 yearly $US10M plus paycheck, that will allow NZF to plan ahead with some cash, and hopefully aim for actual AWs games in NZ against just more than just the OFC minnows. But for this next cycle it could be more of the same, which would be a real shame, given the talent in the team.