KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Football could cut more than one-third of their staff, including chief executive Graham Seatter, as the board looks to drastically reduce losses.
The national body has posted deficits over the past four years and expects to lose about $500,000 from 2007, although $311,000 of this was directly attributable to the postponed World Cup qualifier with Fiji.
NZF chairman John Morris said they were looking at all aspects to make the organisation more "viable and sustainable".
He would not discuss redundancies but it's understood this is one proposal being considered seriously.
"Everything is up for grabs. We are going through everything with a fine-tooth comb to look at everything we have done and everything we want to do in the future," Morris said. "We want to make sure we aren't living hand to mouth and we're not panicking every time we get to the end of the year."
At present the equivalent of 15.5 fulltime positions are occupied at NZF but it's understood the board has proposed this drop to between eight and 10.
Heading the list of casualties could be Seatter who, as chief executive, had the biggest salary. Because NZF still need a CEO, he might be offered a reduced package or, if he doesn't accept, redundancy.
Seatter declined to comment, saying he was forbidden by the board to talk. A reduced staff would have a profound impact on how the sport is run, on both the international front and at home.
In the past two years, under-age and women's teams have played in South and North America, Asia and Australia preparing for world tournaments but this could change drastically.
A clear directional change was taken three years ago as the board sought to become more active internationally and Seatter was brought in to oversee this. This strategy has seen costs escalate, especially considering New Zealand teams played 73 games in 2007 compared with six in 2005.
Sparc are likely to offer $300,000 in addition to the $1.25 million they give to NZF to help them out of their present financial problems. In return, they would like to have an observer on NZF's board as well as a greater emphasis on grassroots football.
Furthermore, Oceania general secretary Tai Nicholas said they were looking at ways to give NZF more funding because of the burden of representing the confederation at every world tournament since Australia joined Asia two years ago.
"We are going to find ways to assist New Zealand Football," Nicholas said. "They are always representing Oceania in Fifa tournaments.
"We give some assistance but perhaps we need to give more. We could increase the money they need to go to Fifa tournaments, Oceania could take care of hosting tournaments rather than New Zealand, we could offer them a loan or we could put a cash injection into their programmes.
"At the end of the day, a bad Oceania representative is a reflection on us and New Zealand Football's activities are just horrendous. You can understand why they are running at a loss."
