WELLINGTON—Thousands of New Zealand parents will be offered free coaching courses to encourage more children to stick with soccer after the All Whites qualified for next year's World Cup in South Africa.
New Zealand Football (NZF) said on Tuesday they planned to reinvest a hefty slice of their expected NZ$10 million (US$7.27 million) World Cup windfall on training mums and dads to become coaches.
The NZF's director of football development John Herdman said his organisation would underwrite the cost of training around 3,500 new coaches ahead of the 2010 season.
"We want to create outstanding coaches at the junior level to raise the quality of the junior experience to a point where we capture not only the child but also football families through to the age of 11, 12 and 13," Herdman said in a statement.
The All Whites qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1982 by beating Bahrain over two legs recently, sparking renewed interest in the game in rugby-mad New Zealand.
