Herbert to stay on as Kiwis coach
Reuters - Tuesday 13 July 2010, 06:55
WELLINGTON - Ricki Herbert will continue
as New Zealand national team coach after taking them to their
first World Cup finals in 28 years.
The 49-year-old would guide the All Whites through the
qualifying rounds for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in
conjunction with his regular coaching job at Wellington Phoenix
in Australia's top-flight A-League, he told reporters on
Tuesday.
"New Zealand Football are happy to continue on with the
partnership with Wellington Phoenix and the national team and
I've agreed to continue on for the next period for the World
Cup," Herbert told New Zealand television.
Herbert, whose team won many admirers in South Africa after
bowing out at the group stage undefeated with draws against
champions Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia, had committed to both
posts for three years after turning down offers from overseas.
He was among the lowest-paid managers at the World Cup, his
annual salary of NZ$50,000 ($36,000) a quarter of his club pay,
according to one New Zealand newspaper.
The 78th-ranked All Whites' appearance in South Africa
after a long qualification drought has seen football explode in
the traditionally rugby-dominated nation.
Herbert, who took over the New Zealand job in 2005, said
one factor in his decision to stay on was out of concern that
too much change could stall that momentum, as had happened
after the side's only other World Cup appearance in 1982.
"I'm certainly looking forward to building the brand even
more," said Herbert, a defender in the 1982 squad. "(I've) got
a strong memory in my mind when there was a whole raft of
changes at the top and then of course, the major collapse.
"Again, it was part of my decision... to take what we've
created needs to continue."
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