Whangarei football fever builds as cup event nears

Wearing their Tikipunga strip, keen football players Fergus Davidson, 7, left, and Nicolas Bernecker, 9, have the Under-20 world cup in their sights.Photo/John Stone

A year today the eyes of the world will focus on Whangarei when the city hosts one of the first matches in the Fifa Under-20 World Cup.

The event, the international football association's second-largest tournament after the Football World Cup, is broadcast in more than 200 countries and watched by about 500 million. It will feature 24 teams over 52 games, showcasing the world's best young footballing talent.

Toll Stadium will host three group matches, the first kicking off at 4pm on May 30 - just a few hours after the tournament's opening game. The second will be at 1pm on June 2 and the third from 2pm on June 7. Whangarei's round of 16 match will kick off at 4pm on June 11.

To mark the one-year milestone football-related events are being held around the country, including corporate matches at Laurie Hall Park from 12.30pm today. Hosted by Northern Football Federation the fun games will be five minutes each way and open to the public to watch.

Whangarei is a category 3 host city for the tournament. An economic assessment by Covec estimates $3.5million of income for category 3 host cities, made up of $1.87million from New Zealand Football and Fifa spending money in the city to deliver the event; $1.04million spent by international visitors and .76million from domestic visitors. Category 3 regions could also expect 8927 international visitors over 90,044 visitor nights including 115 international media representatives.

Northern Football development officer Dave Alabaster said Whangarei's football fraternity was already excited about having games in Whangarei.

At 1pm on May 30, 2015, the whistle will blow to kick off the first match in the tournament in Auckland. Major events at Auckland's Aotea Square and Wellington's Civic Square will mark the occasion, with a friendly match between the All Whites and South Africa at Mt Smart Stadium in the evening.

Dave Beeche, chief executive officer of Fifa U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015, said, "When organising a global event of this magnitude, a year is nothing. It will go by in a flash and with Fifa World Cup about to kick off in Brazil, we are excited about the football fever that is kicking in across the country."