Editorial: $300,000 to ride the bandwagon

Prime Minister John Key has announced a $300,000 boost for the All Whites' World Cup campaign. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Government has a technique for brushing aside issues that it would rather not confront. We have no time for this; there are far more important things to deal with, it will say.

How, then, to explain the Prime Minister taking time to announce a $300,000 boost for the All Whites' World Cup campaign? The sum is relatively trifling, even if it might be gratefully received by other sporting bodies with greater financial struggles on their hands than soccer.

So small, in fact, that the Government might have been expected not to bother with it. It had, after all, taken a somewhat quizzical view of its predecessor's funding of yachting's Team New Zealand. But all too often there seems little rhyme or reason to what the Government will intervene in and what it will steer clear of.

John Key said the money given to New Zealand Football would help it capitalise on the All Whites' qualification for the World Cup finals and promote the game domestically.

More specifically, he mentioned the hiring of a temporary media manager, the revamping of the NZF's website, a series of soccer fun days, and the identification and training of talented 17 and 18-year-olds.

None of this bears a skerrick of analysis, not least because NZF will receive a $10 million windfall payment from Fifa, the game's governing body because of thanks to the All Whites' qualification for the finals.

That will be supplemented by the host of sponsorship opportunities opened by New Zealand's second appearance on football's biggest stage. It also follows close on the heels of a US$1 million ($1.4 million) payout from Fifa for the All Whites' participation in last year's Confederations Cup. In sum, that money has put NZF's previously shaky finances on an even keel.

This has been recognised by Sparc, the national sports finding agency, which allotted nothing to men's soccer when announcing its funding for this year.

"We sat down with them last year and they said where they needed help was in preparing to qualify [for the World Cup], rather than if they do qualify," said Martin Toomey, Sparc's high-performance manager. "Once you're at Fifa tournaments you get paid for being there and all your costs are met. New Zealand football will do well out of qualifying."

The Government's contribution, therefore, is essentially meaningless in practical terms. At least the Clark Government's $33.75 million subsidy for Team New Zealand's 2007 America's Cup challenge in Valencia withstood some analysis.

Consultants Market Economics said it boosted the economy by $2 for every dollar invested, a greater sum than that estimated when the money was handed over. Most of this benefited Auckland, notably in generating between 750 and 900 jobs. It also helped stop team personnel going to overseas syndicates, as did a subsequent $10 million after Valencia.

There is no such purpose to the money handed to NZF. The only possible rationale is the Government's wish to climb on the soccer bandwagon. To be popular, and, ultimately, translate that into votes.

Therein lies the apparent motive for its haphazard approach to intervention, evident this week on another issue. Why else, except in pursuit of popularity, would it have backed off changing the entitlements offered by the SuperGold Card?

A review of the travel concessions offered by the card, including the Waiheke ferry subsidy, was announced four months ago. Consultation started last week, only to be quickly terminated when superannuitants began to kick up a fuss.

The Government's initial instinct about the need for changes because the budget for the card was being exceeded was correct. It should have pressed on. Oddly, it chose the timid path. Even more strangely, it has now elected to have the Prime Minister, no less, hand over a sum of little use to a sporting body that does not need it.