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Bizarre goings-on, as usual, in the Asian Football Confederation this week with AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam doing a complete 360 on his stated opposition to a 39th round of the English Premier League in Asia.
Hammam was one of the most vociferous opponents of the concept – which involved EPL teams playing a round in key marketing territories outside England – and there were few who supported it; I was one of them, it should be pointed out.
I thought the 39th round was a natural extension of what the Premier League was already doing in Asia and a signal of its willingness to counter the popularity of the booming Indian Premier League cricket tournament on the subcontinent.
It was also a defensive gambit against predatory entrepreneurs.
As I wrote back in April, “Was it really so bad for Scudamore to try to leverage the value of his own product before a Lalit Modi-style promoter (the man who invented the IPL) comes and tries to do something similar with EPL football?”
Hammam’s opposition was founded on a simple premise. The EPL wasn’t giving anything to Asia, just taking. And he didn’t mince his words.
“I can’t see the wisdom in the proposed plans,” he said at the time. “My recommendation to the AFC executive committee would be to reject any initiatives of this nature. And we would urge the AFC member associations to protect their own national leagues and clubs within their territories.”
Which Football Federation Australia, a lickspittle of the AFC, did in a flash.
Now Hammam’s changed his tune completely, having apparently been convinced by Scudamore that it wasn’t football imperialism at all and in fact an act of benevolence.
“I think the EPL are mature enough to understand that it is not all about money, but it is about what legacy they can leave behind them in Asia and how they can support other clubs and leagues in Asia to come up with their football,” he said. “This is what is now on the agenda of the Premier League.”
Of course, I wasn’t privy to anything that went on between the Qatari powerbroker and his English silvertail counterpart, but it really is something of an extraordinary volte face. Scudamore must have promised a lot.
And, crucially, it leaves the FFA in an exceptionally invidious position.
When the AFC made its original opposition to the 39th round abundantly clear to its member associations, the FFA was very vocal in its opposition to the idea.
Chairman Frank Lowy, not usually the spokesman for such matters, came out and declared the concept was dead in the water: “The bottom line is FFA rejects the notion of another country playing a round of their domestic competition in Australia and intruding on the development of the Hyundai A-League and the game in Australia.”
So much for that.
Now chief executive Ben Buckley is heading to the AFC Awards in Shanghai, scheduled to meet Hammam.
You can bet he will be returning home singing a markedly different tune.
Importantly, however, Buckley should take some encouragement from the fact that Hammam has demonstrated some pragmatism in this instance.
It shows that the whole issue of Wellington Phoenix being booted out of the A-League after 2011 is anything but a fait accompli and there must be some room for negotiation.
If Hammam really is fair dinkum about raising the quality of Asian football as he repeatedly insists he is, then he is doing a disservice to Australia, one of his most powerful allies, by eliminating a team that currently sits sixth in our national league.
Removing Wellington would be an act of utter stupidity and leave the A-League very much the poorer.
Let’s trust Hammam comes to his senses a second time around.
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