Much has been said about Australia’s bid for the 2018 World Cup. However, I believe the FFA must learn to crawl before it can walk. That’s why I believe FIFA would want Australia to host an AFC Asian Cup first before giving a World Cup to us.
The benefits of hosting this tournament are:
– The 2015 Asian Cup will be televised to the highest population base in the world, in Asia. The beauty is 16 teams make the finals not like the World Cup with only five Asian teams participating. This will result in big TV numbers.
– The Asian Cup can be held in July or January. It doesn’t take a genius to know that holding it in January would mean no conflict with the other football codes and would have no opposition against it. Watching Football in summer is a whole lot better than watching it in winter, which will also mean more tourists coming to Australia.
– January falls in the International Window, meaning all the best players will be required to be released by club teams.
– The tournament runs for three weeks meaning little disruption to the A-league season.
– You only need between four and six stadiums for such an event, and they don’t have to be 40,000 plus capacity either. hey also do not have to be as updated as World Cup venues have to be. This means less cost in upgrading them.
To cater for a tournament like this you could use from the following list:
Skilled Stadium (Gold Coast) – 27,000
Sydney Football Stadium – 45,000
Sydney Olympic Stadium – 83,000 (used for Opening game, Oz games, and Final)
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium – 31,000
Canberra Stadium – 25,000
Hindmarsh Stadium – Adelaide – 17,000
Members Equity Stadium Perth – 20,000
Energy Australia Stadium – Newcastle – 25,000
Suncorp Stadium – Brisbane – 52,000
Docklands Stadium – Melbourne- 52,000
Dairy Farmers Stadium – Townsville– 25,000
I think if the Australian public embraced this tournament first, FIFA would be less inclined to deny us a World Cup later.
The downside is that we might have to wait to 2026 to get a World Cup.
I am interested to know if people think FIFA would want us to show our football credentials first?
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