The New Zealand national football team "will put more than just World Cup qualification on the line" when it meets Peru in next month's intercontinental playoff, according to Liam Hyslop of STUFF. Winning will provide New Zealand Football with a $10M boost that automatically comes from World Cup participation, securing a "consistent program of games" for the All Whites through the next four-year World Cup cycle. Losing will see NZF left with whatever it is able to "scrounge from the playoff," with the selling of TV rights for the home leg in Wellington set to provide the "biggest windfall," but not enough to sustain its current activity levels. NZF CEO Andy Martin said that costs "will need to be cut if the All Whites do not make the World Cup." The organization was "extremely fortunate four years ago" to get more than NZ$6M out of broadcaster Univision when it hosted Mexico for the playoff, "even though the on-field aggregate loss was 9-3." Martin: "Mexico obviously was a perfect storm, final game, two big broadcasters in Mexico bidding for the game." NZF will receive NZ$2.3M ($1.7M) from playing in the Confederations Cup in June this year. The NZF's annual report budgeted for a NZ$1.2M loss for the calendar year '17, with budgeted overall revenue of NZ$15M ($10.8M) and expenses of NZ$16.2M ($11.6M). That is what makes the NZ$14M ($10M) from World Cup qualification "so crucial." It would "almost double" NZF's revenue for the year (STUFF, 10/15).
