Fifa World Cup: Rufer joins Cup campaign

People would come from around the world to watch the games, John Key says - as they did when Germany and Argentina faced off in the final in Rio de Janeiro last year. Photo / AP

Govt to conduct study but warns that at $60 billion, hosting football event ‘is not cheap’.

Our greatest ever footballer says a Fifa World Cup Down Under would be "unbelievable", and would do wonders for the game in New Zealand.

Legendary All White Wynton Rufer, Oceania's Player of the 20th Century, said the proposed bid was "very cool".

"For so many reasons it would just be phenomenal if we were able to host it or co-host it."

It comes as Prime Minister John Key announced yesterday it was "a big dream" to co-host the tournament, and that the Government would carry out a scoping study into the potential benefits.

"It's probably reasonably cheap to go and do a scoping study of what's required. I think that would be a useful step because it's good to have those dreams."

The idea originated from Martin Snedden, who revealed to the Herald that he wanted to push for a New Zealand bid for the 2026 or 2030 Football World Cup, co-hosting the event with Australia.

Rufer, an ambassador for the Under-20 Fifa World Cup being held in New Zealand in May and June this year and who played in New Zealand's first World Cup outing in Spain in 1982, said the "buzz and interest" surrounding the junior event was a sign of things to come if Snedden's plans went ahead. "I was in New Plymouth on Friday doing promotion and it's just incredible - every man and his dog coming out because this Under-20 event is coming to town.

"Imagine what's going to happen if the senior World Cup is here - mind-boggling."

Mr Key said although Australia had failed in its recent attempt to host the global sporting event, there might be a better chance with New Zealand.

"There's no question if we could be co-hosts of the Fifa World Cup it would be bigger than Texas because it's the biggest sporting event in the world, there's a huge international audience and people would come from around the world to watch those games."

But he warned it would be a costly venture - it had cost Qatar, the hosts of the 2022 World Cup, about $60 billion "so it's not cheap", he said.

Mr Snedden, the man credited with making the Rugby World Cup a success four years ago, believed the goal was attainable.

New Zealand Football was quick to throw its support behind the idea yesterday, its high performance director Fred de Jong saying New Zealand had the capability to host big events such as this.

"Obviously the Fifa World Cup's the biggest event on the planet, so you'd have to look at the scale of that and it depends on which parts of that event you are doing. But I don't think we need to shy away from the fact that we are very good at events."

Sport and Recreation Minister Jonathan Coleman had informally discussed the idea with Snedden and said of the proposal: "At this stage it's an interesting idea that could be worth looking into further, but we've not had any work done on it."