Football: Fifa boss tips tourney to provide huge boost

Jerome Valcke. Photo / AP

Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke thinks football in New Zealand will reach another level after June's Under-20 World Cup.

The draw for Fifa's third-biggest men's tournament will take place in Auckland next Tuesday, when the Junior All Whites will learn their opponents for the group stage.

But, regardless of New Zealand's potential progress in the 24-team tournament, Valcke believes the sport in this country is about to receive an immeasurable boost.

"It will help New Zealand to play better football and have better infrastructure to play football," said Valcke, Sepp Blatter's No 2 at Fifa. "It will create a lot of interest for kids among New Zealand in the different schools to play football. It also gives New Zealand an amazing platform to be recognised around the world, because you have 23 countries that will focus on New Zealand.

"A number of people from the football community will be going there and New Zealand will become a very important country when they will organise this tournament."

Valcke will be among the luminaries who will head to these shores, set to arrive in Christchurch for the second day of action. The Frenchman first visited New Zealand for the inaugural Women's Under-17 World Cup in 2008, an event he said was "perfectly organised".

For this year's tournament to match that standard, Valcke hoped to see a similar level of participation from the local football community, with the amount of involvement only enhancing the development of the game.

"[At the Under-17 World Cup] there was support from all the cities, from all the population and all these families," Valcke said. "It's part of the wish from the New Zealand Football association to develop football and there's a number of families who want to see their kids play football."

The quality on offer during the three-week tournament should certainly help attract new fans to the sport, with the stars of tomorrow set to grace pitches around the country. The likes of Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero have excelled at previous editions of the event, with the calibre of players involved making it an important date on the Fifa calendar.