Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
New Zealand are living up to their 'cocky Kiwis' reputation by asking FIFA how much cash its football association can expect if the All Whites qualify for the World Cup finals ... despite the fact they still have to beat Bahrain to get to South Africa.
The team and management are not at all sheepish about their prospects despite being ranked below the kingdom in the football stakes and have even engaged a sponsorship agency to work out how much the All Whites brand will be worth if the side makes it to next year's sporting spectacular.
New Zealand have already upset Bahrain's fans by saying the playoff would have been tougher had they been facing Saudi Arabia.
According to New Zealand's Sunday Star Times, it turns out Kiwi football will receive a windfall of up to $10 million if the All Whites win the two-legged affair ... and Bahrain's fans believe that sort of money would be better off spent developing young talent here in the kingdom than in a country that boasts nine sheep for every human.
NZ Football chief executive Michael Glading has had to instruct recently appointed commercial manager Peter Hunt to produce a commercial valuation of all its 'properties' in preparation for selling them to sponsors, writes Steve Kilgallon.
Hunt is consulting the same agency that advised Football Federation Australia during its rapid rise as a sporting code in Australia, and will talk to the FFA itself for tips on how it cemented the sport's future after qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals.
The All Whites players will be entitled to a half of any prize and television money from the tournament, with the rest going to NZ Football. "We've asked how much it would be, and FIFA say they don't know yet because obviously they haven't finalised the television money, but it will be somewhere between $7m and $10m," said Glading.
A longstanding contract with the Professional Footballers Association means the team will take away roughly 50 per cent, but the rest is already earmarked for investment in New Zealand national teams and for a development programme being planned by NZ Football development director John Herdman.
"We want to create a legacy around this, and the board has already done some work around 'what if' and we want to make sure we reinvest a fair amount into the grassroots," said Glading.
Adding extra millions on top of the FIFA handout is Hunt's job. First he has to find out how much New Zealand football is worth. Hunt said: "We're the world's biggest sport, and even though (New Zealand) is rugby-mad, we will follow anything and we like winners."
That could be the cocky Kiwis' downfall ... Bahrain likes its winners too!
Bahrain are set to play either Iraq, Libya or Syria in a warm-up friendly at home on October 4 before tackling the first leg against New Zealand at the National Stadium six days later. The return fixture will be in Wellington on November 14.
Supporter Yousef Al Khatib, 25, from Tubli, said: "New Zealand can boast as much as they like but Bahrain's fans have every confidence in the team and we'll show them how passionate we are and what real support is."
