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In a surprising move, A-League chief Damien de Bohun has touted Asia as a potential target for A-League expansion teams.
While this sudden statement has fans taken aback in this country, it’s easy to see sense in such a move.
I think both Australia and wherever this team is based – be it Indonesia, Malaysia or my pick Singapore – will benefit from such an arrangement.
The AFC are very community-minded – they want to see Asian players, clubs and national teams do well.
A team in Southeast Asia would show the AFC that we’re serious about our place in Asia and we share their vision of making Asia as strong as possible.
A helping hand to the less successful nations in Asia could be what the FFA needs to win hearts in the AFC over, not to mention some of their valuable ranking points. The boost in Asian representation could see the A-League gaining the coveted four spots in the AFC Champions League.
If we do go through with it, we’d not only be helping out an AFC member but also a member of ASEAN member, the smaller subset of South East Asian clubs the AFC has geographically grouped us with.
It’s not as though the teams in question would be also-rans, only there to make up the numbers. The chance to field a team in a league like the A-League would have the financial sectors of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur bustling with chequebooks in hand, trying to get a piece of the action.
Admittedly, I don’t know much about the leagues of the nations in question. I’ve heard they’re honest, hard-working leagues where vocal support is king and a large array of nationalities are represented.
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are also the two largest financial centres in Southeast Asia, with populations larger than any city in Australia at five million apiece). That means plenty of support, both financially and in the stands.
In a recent match against Malaysian side Johor Darul Takzim, Perth Glory saw just how passionate the area could be about football. A crowd of 27,000 saw their side lose 2-0 to the Australians but remained vocal throughout the match – imagine that crowd in a bigger league with bigger stakes.
It’s not all charity to those less fortunate, though. Australia will benefit from the extra tourism generated from the trips, while away support can be gathered from short-stay tourists, expats, students and most certainly corporate tourists.
It’s one of these situations that will see a slower return for longer than the instant gratification of a team like Western Sydney Wanderers.
I know we have a few key areas in Australia that a lot of fans would like to see represented, Canberra, Tasmania and Wollongong being the most touted of these.
But if we, like Damien de Bohun, start looking at things from a bigger perspective, moving in to Asia makes a lot of sense.
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