Inside Sport: Under-20 World Cup brings action close to home

This is the busiest time of the football season and is made all the more interesting with the Fifa World Cup taking place in Brazil.

It's a shame our country is not represented at world sport's largest event, as we were four years ago in South Africa, but I think the amazing pictures and gripping sport will be motivating our young footballers for a tilt at qualifying for Russia in 2018.

Who knows, there may be players in our region who will be part of that campaign. We've seen Chris Wood, Marco Rojas, Ryan Thomas and Tyler Boyd graduate to the senior ranks and they all started out in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

We may even see some of these new heroes on our football fields next year when New Zealand hosts the Fifa Under-20 World Cup.

WaiBOP Football is heavily involved with the Fifa Under-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 organisation, delivering events like the trophy tour, mobile futsal courts and fan activation zones in the lead-up to 2015. During May, the Fifa Under-20 World Cup trophy visited a number of towns and locations across our region which was a great opportunity to engage football fans.

While the games will be played at Waikato Stadium, this tournament is a fantastic chance for all of us to watch some top level sport close to home.

Some fantastic ticketing offers are available now so I'd encourage you to visit the tournament's website at www.fifa.com/nz2015 to secure yours.

Our new football development manager, Ken Cresswell, started employment with us in mid-May. This appointment brings our development team to almost full capacity.

Ken is an ex-All White and superb administrator who will enhance the coach and player development programmes for the federation.

Our plan in the near future is to appoint a full-time women's football development officer, which will complete the team.

WaiBOP's staff in all the regions are eager to help you with your enquiries.

Their details can be found on the contacts page of our website.

To keep in touch with everything that's happening in our region, I'd encourage you to visit our website regularly: www.waibopfootball.co.nz

Peter Arndell is the CEO for Waikato Bay of Plenty Football.