Co-host Football World Cup with New Zealand

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By Rich_daddy, 9 Dec 2009 Rich_daddy is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: AFL, football, New Zealand football, NRL, Rugby League, World Cup

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New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, left, and captain Ryan Nelsen reacts after their team's 1-0 win over Bahrain in the World Cup qualifying playoff second leg soccer match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/NZPA, Ross Setford)

Back in June, I wrote an article speculating whether the NRL and AFL would “play ball” (pun intended) with Australia’s bid to host the 2018/2022 Football World Cup. It appears since then that some of the concerns raised have come to fruition.

As I see it, there appears to be two major problems with Australia’s Cup bid.

The first is that the other major sporting codes are concerned their seasons will be dramatically affected, mainly due to lack of access to stadiums.

The second is a lack of suitable stadiums period, hence the need to build more if the bid is successful.

However, building new giant stadiums just for a World Cup has the potential to create white elephants that never get filled again. These concerns are currently playing out with South Africa’s 90,000 capacity Soccer City stadium.

So it got me thinking: why not put a joint bid with New Zealand?

This idea has some merit for several reasons.

First of all, joint bids for World Cups are not uncommon. They occur regularly for the European championship and occurred with Japan/South Korea hosting the World Cup in 2002.

Sometimes I think a joint bid can have more sway as you have more people behind the bid.

Second, it would take the pressure off the FFA to provide all the stadiums, hence reduce the friction with the AFL and NRL as more stadiums will be available.

Thirdly, New Zealand’s interest in football will have jumped recently after the All Whites qualified for the 2010 World Cup. They also have decent stadiums that can cater for World Cup games.

It sounds plausible, but there are some problems with the joint bid set up.

Isolation and travel is the major concern.

This has already been highlighted as the major stumbling block for an Ocenania bid, simply because it is so far away from other countries. Throwing New Zealand into the mix adds potential additional travel and difficulty in setting up base camps for teams.

Plus, Perth may be concerned about missing out altogether in favour of New Zealand.

The other problem is childish squabbling between Australia and New Zealand authorities.

A deal to jointly host the 2003 rugby World Cup fell through, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that reared its ugly head. The key would be to be sensible about it, just like Japan and Korea were.

They agreed one would host the first game, the other the final.

All options should be thought through on this bid.

Even with New Zealand as host, Australia would still get the major games and most likely the final due to our stadiums having larger capacity.

So let us bring the boys from across the Tasman along for the ride.

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The Crowd Says (52) | Page 1 of Comments

Freud of Football said | December 9th 2009 @ 2:54am | Report comment

“These concerns are currently playing out with South Africa’s 90,000 capacity Soccer City stadium.
So it got me thinking: why not put a joint bid with New Zealand?” – Exactly, we can build all the white elephants in NZ because they are so rich and have money to throw at everything?

“First of all, joint bids for World Cups are not uncommon. They occur regularly for the European championship and occurred with Japan/South Korea hosting the World Cup in 2002.” – No, they are uncommon (only one WC ever) and the Euro’s are a bit different, excellent transport infrastructure compared to crappy flights versus outdated airports in Aus and NZ.

“Second, it would take the pressure off the FFA to provide all the stadiums” – And put it on who? It’s great to take the pressure of the FFA but ANY partnership of Aus/NZ for a WC bid wouldn’t be 50/50, you’re talking more 80/20.

“Thirdly, New Zealand’s interest in football will have jumped recently after the All Whites qualified for the 2010 World Cup” – Why would FIFA care about NZ with its 5.4 rugby fans? Australia has the advantage that it’ll be the only continent that hasn’t hosted the WC and the WC could be the first international sporting event to be held on all continents which will be important for Sepp when thinking of his legacy. What does NZ offer?

“The key would be to be sensible about it, just like Japan and Korea were. ” – Oh yes, they were most cordial. They hate each others guts, they squabbled over the rights from the start, they didn’t ever want to share the WC.

One of the dumber ideas I’ve seen be put forward here on The Roar.

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- Hammer said | December 9th 2009 @ 8:45am | Report comment
  
  It’s not a dumb idea at all – NZ could accomodate a whole group stage easily to ease the pressure already building on this side of the Tasman … and NZ have in the past successfully hosted youth W/cups so FIFA know that NZFcan do the job … and the Blatter legacy arugment could easily be applied to him spreading the tournament across all confederations
  
  but can’t see either FIFA or FFA going for it – split W/cup’s aren’t viewed with interest by FIFA and I get the impression from both FFA and Rudd that it’s a real ego thing to snare the biggest event on the planet … – also throw in the little fact that both would need to get automatic spots and then really watch the bunfight start – there’s been enough jibes already about NZ having the affront to actually qualify for SA … try telling one of the other confederations with half spots they’re losing it for this particular tournament …
  
  It’s a good left field idea to try and smooth out the stadium crisis – but can’t see it flying and in the end may weaken an all ready weak bid
  
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Football_Wunderkind said | December 9th 2009 @ 5:33am | Report comment

Joint bid with NZ is not a bad idea. They are rebuilding Eden Park to be a shiny new stadium, and just throw in one of the others being updated and there is 2 stadiums to help solve our stadium crisis. Our stadium problem is actually a massive stadium crisis… just go to this link

http://www.gousabid.com/city

and do a bit of browsing on all cities bidding to be part of the USA bid and look at all the stadiums. All 70k+… It all makes our bid look ridiculous.

Anyway… joint bid with NZ has a few plus sides… It could be sold to FIFA as ‘giving Oceania’ there turn and spreading the football gospel… blah blah etc etc… But yeah like I said.. the biggest plus side is the added stadiums and training venues to take the heat off our problem.

I have a better idea. and the title to this article snapped my brain into gear. If Andrew Demetriou is reading this. When Australia does eventually host the World Cup… whether it be 2018/2022 or later on. Why not spread the ‘AFL gospel’ for real and play 4-6 weeks of the AFL season in NZ…. Not all of it… just the games that Subi, York Park, Skilled Stadium, Gabba, SCG, AAMI stadium, Darwin and Telstra Dome can’t handle. (because those stadiums will be around and available in 2018/2022 and not being used by the FIFA world cup). NZ have the Cake Tin and a few other ovals with sufficient capacity. AFL fans in Melbourne who hate ‘soccer’ can escape to NZ . Seriously though.. all this AFL grandstanding about not having an AFL season has got me realy annoyed.

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- allblackfan said | December 9th 2009 @ 5:42am | Report comment
  
  The Cake Tin is not oval shaped. The complex may be circular (shaped) but the ground is a rugby one. Plus you could not expect to make any money on gate takings.
  
  But who’s to say the NZRFU would be any more pleased than the ARL or NRL with FIFA’s demands about other sports not competing with the WC?!
  
  Reply
  - Chris said | December 9th 2009 @ 7:39am | Report comment
    
    No, the cake tin is oval shaped. It has hosted international cricket and two AFL games in the past. The stadium website and satellite pictures will confirm it is oval shaped. That said I’d bargain it would be on the smaller side for an AFL ground.
    
    It’s a moot point. We are all squabbling over an event that will never actually happen in Australia.
    
    Reply
    - Jerry said | December 9th 2009 @ 6:39pm | Report comment
      
      It’s an oval. Decent view for rugby/football as you’re pretty close, but it’s still an oval.
      
      It’s not that large an oval, either. Fine for cricket (though they hardly ever play there cause people in Wellington would rather watch cricket at the Basin where you don’t have to sit in a plastic bucket seat for 8 hours) but wouldn’t be great for AFL as you’d have to bring the sidelines in so players didn’t hit the concrete walls if they got knocked over the sideline.
      
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Pippinu said | December 9th 2009 @ 7:43am | Report comment

Apart from the fact that FIFA generally frowns on joint bids these days, it’s not a bad idea, but it’s probably a bit too late for that.

Maybe keep it in mind for 2026.

NZ would only need to contribute 2 or 3 venues to make it worthwhile.

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katzilla said | December 9th 2009 @ 7:48am | Report comment

Would the World Cup interfere with the Lengthened Super 15?
If so I don’t think FIFA will be happy with the Super 15 running at the same time.
The NZRU is another matter altogether.

I’ve watched an AFL game at the cake tin between the bombers and lions, the ground is too small.
Notice on tv that during cricket matches top edges almost always go for six.

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- Newy Rugger said | December 9th 2009 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
  
  I think your correct KAT. S15 by then will run into that time slot, not to mention the in bound tests and 3 N that would need to be reshedualed. I dont see it as a big deal but i think rugby should be the first code to come out and support the bid. sticking it up the NRL and ALF. (both minority sports anyway).
  
  P.S i’m in favour of a joint bid for ’26 if we fail with ’18 or ’22.
  
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dasilva said | December 9th 2009 @ 8:38am | Report comment

I would have been for it, if we weren’t members of AFC and that Bin Hammen is pretty pissed off about our already strong relationship with New Zealand and also if FIFA aren’t currently frowning on joint bids in principals

These are two major obstacles that kind of eliminates this idea at once.

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- Pippinu said | December 9th 2009 @ 8:44am | Report comment
  
  Bin might support a joint bid between Australia and Qatar.
  
  Reply
AndyRoo said | December 9th 2009 @ 9:13am | Report comment

If it could be set up as them as mini host, i.e they looked after a single group and didn’t get free entry into the event I think it would be a nice move all round. And possibly added too the current bid?

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- Freud of Football said | December 9th 2009 @ 6:15pm | Report comment
  
  What a great idea. Let’s make them invest in our WC by upgrading stadia to support one group but we won’t give them any of the benefits ie. an automatic slot or the lucrative knockout games, we’ll just let them foot the bill and hope that they make hundreds of millions off of a few group matches.
  
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  - AndyRoo said | December 9th 2009 @ 7:00pm | Report comment
    
    Up to them if they want it. But NZ isn’t worth a co host position as that would be very unatractive to the various confeds who feel they could miss out on a spot.
    They already have one 45k stadium by 2022 they might have two natuarally without much extra expense.
    
    Are the knock out games more lucrative than the group games? assumed they would all be sell outs regardless.
    
    Reply
Liam said | December 9th 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment

This is utterly stupid idea. NZ don’t have near enough market potential to have a soccer world cup. They made one world cup big deal. This is coming from a New Zealander. They don’t have the potential to host it.

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- Hayden said | December 9th 2009 @ 10:39am | Report comment
  
  Actually Liam, they have made two WCs, the same I think as OZ.
  
  Reply
  - Darwin hammer said | December 9th 2009 @ 10:49am | Report comment
    
    not quite – Oz are going to their 3rd in SA … NZ are heading to their second … Liam – the idea is not to host the whole world cup but to ease the stress of stadium availability – NZ certainly could host a 1 whole group .. but the concept would severely weaken the Oz bid inthe eyes of FIFA
    
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NCB619 said | December 9th 2009 @ 1:34pm | Report comment

I would say that this was a good idea….If Australia wasn’t a member of the AFC. If we were part of the OFC, or NZ as part of the AFC, I’d be all for it, but its this main issue that won’t see this happen

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Ben of Phnom Penh said | December 9th 2009 @ 2:58pm | Report comment

It is all a bit late in the day to be discussing joint bids unless 2026 is in mind.

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footyfreak said | December 9th 2009 @ 3:28pm | Report comment

it wont work
first new zealand is afl obsessed maybe more than victoria so no one would turn up to games there in protest of the way the afl has been treated by soccer

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