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Australia's Mark Viduka with Soccer Australia President Frank Lowry after Australia defeated Uruguay during the 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualifier match at Telstra Stadium, Sydney, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005. Australia defated Uruguay in a penalty shoot out qualifying them for the World Cup in Germany. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Question marks over stadiums, aside from the politics of the bidding process, were for many the biggest impediment to Australia potentially hosting the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Well it certainly is for Adelaide with the city given the blunt declaration from the FFA: build a new stadium or forget being part of the World Cup. The states officials aren’t budging.
The FFA declared that the three possible alternatives in Adelaide are all unsuitable.
AAMI Stadium is too far from the CBD and the grandstands too far from the action, Adelaide Oval doesn’t have the capacity, likewise Hindmarsh Stadium.
However, the State Government rejected FFA’s suggestion for a rectangular 40,000 plus stadium to be build on the outskirts of the CBD, reaffirming their already held position that they will seek to possibly redevelop AAMI or Adelaide Oval and will not commit to a new stadium, at least not until the World Cup bid was won.
Despite the frustrations of South Australian football fans it’s an understandable dilemma in a state with stadiums adequate for its sporting sides and in an economic climate that has resulted in governments running at record deficits.
But the impasse points at a greater problem, the lack of a united vision of the World Cup and the frustrations of doubt.
What struck me most in the response to the stadium dilemma was the ambivalence many felt towards a World Cup, the scepticism that it’s just not going to happen.
Is this the result of ambivalence toward the world game or is the FFA not doing a good enough job in drumming up support and enthusiasm for what would be the greatest sporting event ever held in Australia?
Regarding the stadiums and in this regard we are paying the price for our divergent sporting culture that for the past hundred years that has favoured our indigenous codes such as Aussie Rules and our stadiums are a mere reflection of that culture.
Only now is football getting on an even keel, a process that has only just happened in the past half a decade and therefore we don’t have the infrastructure in place. And now we want to stage the game’s, if not all of sport’s, biggest tournament.
Such dilemmas were always going to be apparent therefore.
The problem with Adelaide’s example is it damages the World Cup bid process.
Putting cynicism aside about why World Cups are handed out to certain nations when they are, on a purely infrastructure standpoint we still have a way to go and waiting on a successful bid will naturally impact the bid process itself and our chances.
While some may say the eastern seaboard can manage without an Adelaide, assuming FIFA is flexible with its city and stadium requirements, it won’t be a true Australian bid.
The World Cup is about more than economic concerns.
It should result in a lasting legacy for football in this country and that should include all major metropolitan areas.
While most focus on 2018, we should instead hope for 2022, not just as a more realistic target with 2018 surely earmarked for Europe, but also so we have that extra time to get the state governments on board and also the sceptics.
Thankfully FIFA allowed multiple bids for the two World Cups.
Let’s hope by then the public is a little more in touch with how big this event would be.