That's really bad news for those kids and their families left tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
What does the guy who took their money expect?
Of course the NZ police are after him because he's made no attempt to arrange to repay the money and has left NZ.
This shows that private football academies need to be more regulated (this bloke Reira was behind the IFANZ academy and the "Player Profiles" website) and there need to be contracts for overseas trips like this with legal guarantees of the product / service being delivered or money refunded in full.
While IFANZ ended disastrously with parents owed a lot of money, we're lucky that the other private academy, the Christchurch Football Academy and the Christchurch Football Centre established by Russian multi-millionaire immigrant Slava Meyn, seems to be going from strength-to-strength with it's inaugural Christchurch International Cup junior tournament organized and delivered in only four months.
This sounds like it will become NZ's biggest annual junior football tournament with plans to increase it from this year's 34 teams to 64 teams from NZ and internationally within a few years.
This bloke Slava Meyn is really good for football in Canterbury and has spent millions already on the Football Centre and coaching programs.
The Christchurch International Cup already has its own comprehensive website:
http://www.internationalcup.co.nz/
Results from the weekend's tournament here:
http://www.internationalcup.co.nz/fixtures-results...
My son played in this tournament and it was brilliantly run in what is a remarkable facility. All four games began at once when the CFC music played and each team walked onto their pitch alongside one another and then stood at halfway, and then shook hands before the game got underway.
The games all started and stopped at the same time with a loud hooter, meaning the schedule ran like clockwork. Floodlights means games can go right through to a 530 kick off (and i guess later if need be)
All kudo's to Slave Meyn and his team, and the have even bigger plans in place with a stadium, changing rooms, indoor sports court, and swimming pool.
Great for the kids to play on such surfaces, makes such a difference from some of the sh*tty bumpy mud heaps around town