A Russian businessman was so disappointed with the sporting facilities when he moved to Christchurch, he has decided to do something about it.

He has put $8 million of his own money into the first stage of what he hopes will be a world-class sporting facility, opened today by the Prime Minister.

Slava Meyn, from the Christchurch Football Academy, has big dreams for his 20ha on Christchurch's western fringe.

"Firstly I love football, secondly, I want to help Christchurch and New Zealand to be a better city and country," he says.

Mr Meyn says when he moved to Christchurch in 2009 he was taken aback by the lack of sporting facilities for children, including his own three children.

For the last 18 months he has been transforming vacant land into a state-of-the-art football centre complete with two full-size artificial turf pitches.

"[The] first idea is to bring as many kids as possible to play football instead of playing PlayStation maybe, and the second one [is] to build a high-performance programme."

He has gained full support from Football New Zealand.

"We can see national academies, age grade training and all sorts of things linked to the international female and male game taking place down here in due course, which will be great," says Football New Zealand chief executive Andy Martin.

Although Mr Meyn has already put a smile on the face of budding footballers, his dream doesn't end there. He also plans to build an Olympic-size swimming pool and gymnasium to complete his international sports centre.

 

3news.co.nz

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