Soccer: Harbour misses out on Cup tie

North Harbour Stadium, the supposed home of New Zealand soccer, has been slam-dunked in its bid to to host the crucial home tie in November's World Cup qualifier.

New Zealand Football's board yesterday gave the nod to Wellington's Westpac Stadium for the November 14 match against a yet-to-be-determined Middle East opponent, rejecting strong bids from North Harbour Stadium and Hamilton's Waikato Stadium.

Player power, led by the seven Wellington Phoenix players in the team who played in the Confederations Cup, appears to have swayed the decision on the venue for the second leg of the home and away play-off against either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, who will play off on September 5 and 9 with the winner to host the first leg of the Asia/Oceania play-offs on October 10.

"All three bids were fantastic and had the support from their respective councils but it came down to a choice between Wellington and Auckland," said New Zealand Football chief executive Michael Glading.

"With a match of this magnitude we need to give ourselves the best chance of qualifying. If players feel more comfortable in one venue and we can get an extra 8000 fans playing their part, that would just be the edge needed to realise the dream of reaching the World Cup again."

The capacity of Westpac Stadium, without temporary seating, is 34,500 while North Harbour Stadium holds 26,500 and Waikato Stadium 25,800.

Tickets are likely to go on sale at the end of next month with Glading confident of a full house. Reality suggests he might be overly optimistic.

New Zealand soccer fans have in the past been reticent when it comes to pre-sales. If the All Whites lose on the first-up away leg, the national body might be caught short in their efforts to attract the fans to a game which is the most important since that epic clash with China in Singapore in January 1982 when John Adshead steered the team to their only World Cup finals appearance.

Meanwhile, All Whites coach Ricki Herbert stopped off in Dubai on his way home from the Confederations Cup to inspect facilities in the United Arab Emirates with a view to basing the team there for planned friendlies in September.

"It was a worthwhile exercise and I'm sure we will come up with the right hotels and training venues," he said. "We have yet to finalise who we will play but there are plenty of options."