Tapping fans' energy for future

New Zealand Football wants to make the most of the All Whites' World Cup run. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Soccer fans will be hoping businessman and former schoolboy goalie Mark Stewart is a safe pair of hands to help secure the future of the sport in New Zealand.

Stewart is chairman of the Football Foundation - a charitable trust set up to help grow participation in the sport.

"The board of New Zealand Football decided that it was very important to try to create a legacy from our participation [in the World Cup] this time, which was not achieved in 1982, and have - wisely, I think - decided to put a reasonable portion of those winnings into the foundation to then allow a separate set of trustees to concentrate on growing that fund and more importantly being able to invest some money back into some of the grassroots areas that are very important for the future of football."

New Zealand Football is contributing $4 million to the foundation.

Stewart said about 150,000 affiliated members were involved in football and there could well be a further 70,000-80,000 non-affiliated participants.

"If you take all of their families on top of that there's a lot of people involved in this game and so we really need to harness that energy."

The idea was to only invest the income from the fund back into the sport, Stewart said.

"I think our concentration is on how to grow the fund initially and probably by early next year we would be seeking applications from the football fraternity as to where's the best impact to invest that money."

Contributions would also be sought from the wider community, including businesses, councils and high net worth individuals.

"We know a number of people out there who are interested in football and would commit to putting some money in but have never had a vehicle to do that," Stewart said.

"I think we wouldn't have done the job really if we can't plough a million bucks a year back into the game.

"I'm quite keen to see this thing grow substantially and I think we've got the contacts and the investment skills with which to be able to do that."

The trustees of the foundation worked voluntarily and included Nicholas Davidson QC, NZ Football chairman Frank van Hattum, Forsyth Barr Group chairman Sir Eion Edgar and Fisher Funds founder Carmel Fisher.

Stewart, who played football as a schoolboy at St Andrew's College in Christchurch, said it was a pleasure to work with van Hattum.

"Because he was the goalie for the '82 campaign and I was 20 ... he was a football hero to me in those days."

Carmel Fisher said the trustees were there for their financial oversight.

"They wanted to have almost non-football people to look after this money so that they didn't make the same mistakes that were made in 1982," Fisher said.

"I liked the fact that they wanted to build this foundation literally for the long-term future of New Zealand football."

The foundation was finalising an investment policy, Fisher said.

"We're still developing it but obviously with something like this, because we're trying to future-proof it, we'll want to make it able to invest in a wide range of assets but in the early days I'd expect it to be invested relatively conservatively because we need to protect that capital," she said.

"You wouldn't put a great amount of it into the share market, that's just too volatile in the early days," she said.

Fisher had had a crash course on soccer and would be following the World Cup closely. "I've found myself Googling all the All Whites to see what they look like and I'm getting more interested by the day."

THE TEAM

MARK STEWART

Director of Ebos Group, alternate director of Wakefield and managing director of Stewart family investment vehicle Masthead. Outstanding Service Award for service to NZ Rugby League.

SIR EION EDGAR

Chairman of Dunedin-based sharebroker and investment banking company Forsyth Barr Group. 2009 SPARC Services to Sport Award.

NICHOLAS DAVIDSON QC

President of New Zealand Football, Commissioner for New Zealand Cricket, deputy chairman of the Sports Tribunal.

FRANK VAN HATTUM

Chairman of NZ Football, member of the Institute of Directors, director of BP Oil NZ, 49 appearances for the All Whites including the 1982 Fifa World Cup.

CARMEL FISHER

Founder and managing director of fund management company Fisher Funds, which manages more than $700 million on behalf of 30,000 investors and KiwiSaver members.