Football: Blazers outnumber players in Confederations campaign

There are also three board members as official delegates, along with NZF chief executive Andy Martin. Photo / Doug Sherring

New Zealand Football will send one of the biggest delegations in their history to the Confederations Cup, with almost 50 people in the official party.

That exceeds the number sent to the 2009 tournament and is believed to be on a par with the number involved in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Aside from the 23 players, the remainder is made up of coaches, management staff, analysts and a small media team.

There are also three board members as official delegates, along with NZF chief executive Andy Martin.

"It's the biggest group in my time," Martin told the Herald on Sunday. "But we will still be the smallest delegation by a long way. The other nations will have 10 to 20 more people on top of ours. But it's a big campaign and you have to do it properly."

The Confederations Cup presents a logistical challenge. The All Whites face Russia in St Petersburg on June 18 (NZT) in the opening game in front of an expected 70,000-plus crowd.

They then travel 2400km to Sochi, a city on the edge of the Black Sea that borders Georgia.

After their match against Mexico there on June 21, the All Whites return to St Petersburg for their final group A game against European champions Portugal, boasting World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.

NZF will also send staff members to Kazan (1500km east of St Petersburg) and Moscow to scout Mexico and Portugal before their respective clashes.

"There is a lot to juggle," said Martin. "Because we only have three days between games, we will be sending advance parties to get ready ahead of the team arriving.

"We will also be sending teams to scout the other sides while we are playing. We've effectively got to have three groups of people travelling during the tournament."

According to the tournament regulations, Fifa covers the accommodation and travel costs for up to 40 people.

That includes return flights to Russia and most costs during the tournament 'bubble'. NZF is also guaranteed minimum prizemoney of US$2 million ($2.92 million).

• All Whites coach Anthony Hudson will name his touring squad at the end of a training camp in Auckland this month. The All Whites have warm-up matches against Northern Ireland on June 2 (in Belfast) and a League of Ireland club side on June 6 (in Dublin). At that point, Hudson will select his final Confederations Cup squad, with a game against Ukraine on June 12 (in Minsk) the final build-up clash.