Tidy up your act, soccer chief tells boozers

New Zealand Football CEO Michael Glading at a press conference in 2008. Photo / Supplied

The man in charge of soccer in New Zealand says Kiwi crowds need to tidy up their drinking behaviour before next year's Rugby World Cup.

Football NZ chief executive Michael Glading yesterday backed comments by his cricketing counterpart, Justin Vaughan, who was appalled by the drunken antics of All Black supporters at last Saturday's test match against the Wallabies in Melbourne.

Mr Vaughan feared their behaviour could damage New Zealand's reputation.

Mr Glading agreed, saying New Zealanders needed to address their drinking.

"I don't think he was saying that rugby fans are all boorish. The way I read it is that as a nation we need to be conscious of the image we are projecting by drinking too much alcohol.

"It's a serious issue which, as a nation, we need to address ... We have a very strong alcohol culture."

Mr Glading believed Kiwi crowds could learn from South Africa's hosting of the Fifa World Cup, where locals went out of their way to accommodate foreign visitors.

Alcohol Advisory Council chief executive Gerard Vaughan said he wasn't surprised by Justin Vaughan's observations.

"Unfortunately, some sporting codes and alcohol seem to be intricately linked and rugby is one of them.

"To actually separate the two, well, some people can't do that."

Gerard Vaughan said Alac had developed event management guidelines that he said were in use at stadiums throughout the country.

But he said questions needed to be asked around the use of alcohol in advertising and marketing for sports events.

Bryan Pearson, chief executive of VBase, the company that manages Christchurch's AMI Stadium, said local crowds were mostly well behaved and comparable to Australian audiences.

Organisers are expecting more than 39,000 people for tomorrow night's All Blacks and Wallabies Tri-Nations match.

"We can refuse service where someone is overindulging in the stadium but the biggest challenge is the issue of pre-loading, where fans attending the stadium might have a substantial amount of alcohol immediately prior to coming to the game," Mr Pearson said.

Westpac Trust Stadium chief executive David Gray said he didn't anticipate any changes to crowd management at the Rugby World Cup.

On average, just a handful of people get thrown out of the 34,500-capacity Wellington stadium for drunken behaviour at All Black test matches.

"We are comfortable with the procedures we have in place to deal with things and so are the police, so I don't think there's anything more we can do," he said.

Justin Vaughan's opinion piece follows similar sentiments from All Blacks coach Graham Henry, who last year blasted a section of the Carisbrook crowd who pelted French players with bottles after their 27-22 win.