In late 2009 New Zealand Football fans and general sports supporters throughout the country will have the opportunity to participate in the biggest Football match involving the All Whites since the famously successful World Cup campaign in 1982.

Wellington has put forward a case to New Zealand Football that this match should be played at Westpac Stadium which can accommodate 35,000 and if required up to 40,000 using blocks of temporary seating as this reflects the expected level of interest and likely demand for tickets.

This is the best chance we have had in New Zealand to qualify for the World Cup Finals since succeeding in 1982 as in subsequent campaigns we were knocked out by Australia who themselves found their progress halted by teams like Scotland, Argentina twice, Iran and Uruguay before finally getting through to the 2006 Finals in Germany after a penalty shoot out with Uruguay in Sydney at a packed Olympic Stadium.

The challenge for the Oceania champions was usually to play off with the 5 th placed South American team, hence matches against formidable teams like Argentina ably led by Diego Maradona at the time widely regarded as the best player in the world, and by most Football commentators as alongside Pele as the greatest player ever in the history of the game.

Not an easy task if your normal opponents each week are part time footballers in the old Australian NSL, however with a talented team of professionals from Europe the 2006 Socceroos proved worthy opponents particularly when under the watchful and demanding eye of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, now in charge of both Russia and Chelsea, and the teams results and performances in the Finals, beating Japan and drawing with Croatia to advance to the second round before a last minute penalty finally knocked them out against eventual Cup winners Italy were really exceptional.

With Australia now looking likely to qualify directly via their new Confederation in Asia, the All Whites route has been to win the Oceania Championships which they have now successfully done and then win a home and away play off against the 5 th placed team from Asia which looks like potentially being Saudi Arabia, North or South korea or perhaps Bahrain.

The first leg is scheduled for the week of October 10-14 and the second leg November 14-18 which are both FIFA windows and we will have all our overseas professional players available such as Ryan Nelson from Premier League club Blackburn Rovers and Chris Killen from current Scotland champion  Celtic. 

The draw for who will host the first leg will be made at a FIFA Congress in late May and our Asian opponents should be known in June.

Wellington is clearly the most appropriate host city for such a big match as we are the Event Capital of New Zealand with an outstandingly supportive and innovative Council who operate a very effective support structure for major events.

The widely read Dominion Post ( readership approx. 250,000 people per day) has a vibrant and interested regular Football  component by respected writer Fred Woodcock and Newstalk ZB, Radio Sport and 91 ZM under the watchful eye of Jason Pine significantly lift the profile and marketability of  Football in the Capital and we know national television will be very interested in a match of this stature and importance with coverage that reflects this.

The advent of the Wellington Phoenix and its strong loyal following plus the extremely successful David Beckham initiative which brought 32,000 people to a Football match at the Stadium in 2007, and the large membership of the Yellow Fever supporters club who are totally committed Football fans and it is easy to see how and why Wellington will generate a huge and possibly sell out crowd for such an important match.

This match represents the very clear opportunity for New Zealand to qualify for the biggest sporting event in the world other than the Olympic Games and the role and importance of the crowd and supporters in generating the atmosphere and energy required to propel the team to victory can not be underestimated.

We can be assured that our opponents, whoever they turn out to be, will have fanatical, messianic type support for their home match with an extraordinary level of intensity and potential intimidation for the visiting All Whites that can often destroy even the very best and most experienced players.

It is therefore a major imperative that we create a cauldron of home based support and spectator commitment to give the All Whites the best possible chance of competing with their Asian or Arab opponents and Westpac Stadium is the only truly viable option for making this happen in this country.

Home ground advantage must be exactly that and with the All White coach Ricki Herbert also running the Phoenix, and a number of the likely All Whites team coming from this side as well as players like Shane Smeltz who recently performed admirably on this ground, then the match at Westpac Stadium will be as much a home ground as possible for the people, coaches, players and fans, who ultimately must go out and achieve this wonderful result for Football and sport generally in this country with the reward being a well earned place in the World Cup Finals 2010 hosted by South Africa for our very own All Whites.

This is not just another game of Football.

John Dow