All Whites spark boom

"There is something happening around football in New Zealand," a smiling and effusive Glading said at the All Whites pre-World Cup camp. "Anyone who doesn't see that has got their head in the sand."

The sport is indeed riding the crest of a popular wave at present in the rugby-mad country.

The All Whites are in Auckland for a camp ahead of the June 11-July 11 tournament in South Africa -- their first trip to the finals since their only other appearance 28 years ago in Spain.

The Wellington Phoenix were within a game of making the A-League final, while amateur side Auckland City confounded pundits to finish fifth at the Club World Cup last December.

Last year's financial success had been achieved through New Zealand's participation at the Confederations Cup, a sell-out for the Asia/Oceania World Cup qualifier against Bahrain in Wellington, and greater organisational efficiency.

Strong foreign exchange earnings had also paid dividends.

To capitalise on that success, Glading said the board had signed off on a new strategic direction for the sport, that would be made public towards the end of May.

The former music executive was reticent to give away specifics, but hinted it would concentrate on the development at the youth level, talent identification and standardisation of coaching and other practices.

NZF had visited six countries -- Australia, Britain, Japan, Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany -- to ascertain what development pathways the respective football bodies had in place to provide them with their own strategic framework.

Glading said, despite the on-field success, the strategy had been developed without the financial boost that will stem from the World Cup being factored in.

"They have had good plans and good ideas in the past but they have petered out through lack of money (and) ... I guess we have more certainty around the strategy," he said about the expected £5.2 million windfall they would receive from participating in Group F with champions Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia in South Africa.

"It's effectively a 10-year plan and that will roll out next year. That was always part of the plan. What the World Cup has done is that it has brought some income and we can plan with a bit more certainty.

"Now we can say that we can make some sweeping changes, in bite size (chunks) and do it over a 10-year period. That's the difference. I think it's really exciting."

The World Cup had also allowed NZF to approach more sponsors with the idea of establishing long-term agreements, while they had recently agreed with a pay television broadcaster to cover the All Whites World Cup warm-up matches.

While the World Cup may be a catalyst to provide a legacy for the sport, Glading was adamant his organisation would not be relying on it in the future.

" We can't be writing a business plan based on World Cups... It's all about sustainability.

"The organisation in the past has had a succession of booms and busts and this board is hell bent on avoiding that.

"We are very confident that we will be able to achieve that."