Kiwis invest World Cup windfall in youth coaches

New Zealand will spend part of their NZ$10 million World Cup windfall on building the future of football in the country by offering free coaching courses to parents and other youth trainers.

In effort to improve the technical standard of players and encourage kids to stay in football rather than defect to rugby union, New Zealand Football (NZF) said on Tuesday they planned to reinvest a hefty slice of their prizemoney on training mums and dads.

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 in the intercontinental play-off, sparking renewed interest in the game in rugby-mad New Zealand.