The seven-person Local Organising Committee (LOC), named on Saturday, will govern the preparation and staging of the tournament which will bring the world’s best young professional footballers to Kiwi shores in less than three years’ time.
“FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015 will bring a festival of international football to New Zealand at a skill level never seen here before,” NZF chairman Frank van Hattum says.
“Some of the teams will be all-professional with many players experienced in the world’s top club competitions and as senior national representatives.”
The LOC has a balanced look with three NZF directors and four independent directors to assist robust governance.
“We have chosen a governance board that have the commensurate skills to ensure the event is well-managed, engages New Zealanders and succeeds on all fronts in showcasing football and New Zealand to the world,” van Hattum says.
He says the directors have proven commercial, financial, business, legal and event leadership skills and this would ensure the management team was guided by experienced governors who had in-depth relevant knowledge.
Appointed from the NZF Board of Directors is Mike Anderson, who is an Auckland lawyer and current chairman of the Northern Football Federation, and Shelley McMeeken, the former CEO of Netball NZ, who has extensive commercial and event management experience.
Senior Treasury official Bill Moran of Wellington will act as chair of the LOC and has been deputy chair of the NZF Board of Directors for four years.
The independent directors are leading sports events administrator Arthur Klap of Wellington and Scott Paterson, who has Australasian business management and governance experience and is Chief Executive Officer of Queenstown Airport.
Mark Stewart and Andrew Titter round out the independent appointments, both are former NZF directors who took on leadership roles in the past to help direct the game out of challenging times. Stewart is a Christchurch businessman and sports governor while Titter is Chief Financial Officer with a major Australasian infrastructure company, domiciled in Auckland and working out of Australia.
The LOC held its first meeting in Wellington on Saturday and discussed a number of items, including the recruitment process for the appointment of a Chief Executive Officer, which has already commenced.
NZF is finalising consideration of bids from prospective host cities and will make recommendations to FIFA on the venues for pool games, round of 16 matches, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final plus play-off for third and fourth.
Early next year, FIFA officials will inspect venues which have been proposed for the 52 matches. Ratification of the hosting decisions is expected when the FIFA Organising Committee meets in Zurich in mid-February 2013.
FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 has provisionally set its opening game for Friday 19 June with the final to be held on Saturday 11 July.
Van Hattum thanked the bidding host cities for their support of the event and says the Central Government is also a major supporter of FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015, which is FIFA’s second-biggest tournament after the FIFA World Cup™.
“The U-20 World Cup attracts hundreds of millions of television viewers and provides an outstanding promotional opportunity for New Zealand. Sport New Zealand has been particularly supportive of the hosting bid made by NZF and of our early planning,” he says.
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz

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