Priestman, 25, assumed the interim role in October 2011 to replace John Herdman and has since balanced those duties with her position as Women’s Development Manager, a role she will now relinquish.
The Head of Football Development is responsible for overseeing New Zealand Football’s development programmes including the award-winning Whole of Football Plan, which was piloted last season at the junior level to 95 clubs around New Zealand.
“It’s an exciting role at a very exciting time for football in New Zealand,” Priestman says.
“We’ve got more grassroots participants than any other sport and almost 70,000 participants received specific football development programmes in 2011 as a result of an internationally researched and benchmarked Whole of Football Plan.
“That number is only going to increase with the junior programmes expanded throughout the rest of clubs this season and youth and senior rollouts on their way in future seasons.”
New Zealand Football Chief Executive Grant McKavanagh says the decision to appoint Priestman was made after a thorough and robust recruitment process.
“We talked to a number of highly-qualified candidates given the significance of the role and ultimately Bev was the right person for the job fulltime,” McKavanagh says.
“She was very heavily involved in the creation of the Junior Player Framework, knows the wider Whole of Football Plan inside out and has been doing the job for the past six months with distinction.”
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz

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