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?
Midfielder
Guest
Will be a massive success IMO
Charles
Guest
Mac, I expect stadia around the size of Hindmarsh Stadium, Swan St Stadium, Sydney Football Stadium and Robina Stadium will be used. FFA could go about it two ways: 1. As many will be low drawing games, spread them far and wide - eg. Perth, Darwin, Nth Qld, Tas, everywhere in between. 2. Focus each of the four groups on the four regions as hinted at above - Adelaide, Melb/Geelong, Sydney/Canberra, and Gold Coast/Brisbane. Generally in the Asian Cup the last two games of each group stage are played simultaneously, so there will need to be a second stadium in each area. Adelaide Oval (pending exclusivity requirements), Kardinia Park, Bruce Stadium (or Central Coast Stadium, or Parramatta - many options around Sydney) and Suncorp (or Ballymore if deemed too large). Finals could then be exclusively Swan St, SFS and Suncorp. It's still a while off - who knows what could happen! I do think that Australia hosting is as close to locked in as it can be though.
Mac
Guest
Asian Cup is an interesting one. You have to remember, in January, you can forget about playing on the MCG or Subiaco - maybe even Telstra Dome depending on arrangements with the cricket. Tennis runs in the last two weeks of January - and attracts about 600,000 fans through the gates. How many fans would the Asian Cup get? I'd suggest maybe a similar amount. ANZ Stadium is a question mark as well - for other reasons (I'll give you a clue - the 2015 sporting calendar is already bulging). The final could well end up being played at Suncorp stadium actually. (Which will be called something else by then given Suncorp will no longer be around) Quite interesting really. I can't see a match between Indonesia v Qatar really attracting more than 10-12,000 for example - which does give flexibility. Only the Aussie games, semis and final would need to be in stadia of any great size. Many things to consider.
Phil
Guest
Guys thx for your comments. Im pretty confident Australia will get the Asian games unless they pull off a miracle and and get 2018 world cup which i doubt. As for the crowds, thats my point, if they were really poor, would FIFA be hesitant in giving it to us? I would suggest yes. My feeling though is that the crowds would be very good as long as they held it in January. A FIFA rep said Australia's bid depends on how well STH Africa does. He believed if Sth Africa was seen by the world as a failure, FIFA would be reluctant to give it to another "virgin" football country. Sir Alex ferguson though believes i will be a success and he would know more about sth africa than i do. As for Japan bidding for the cup again, surely FIFA wouldn't give it to them so soon.
Midfielder
Guest
KB The real advantage the Asian Cup has it can be played in January or July meaning we could play in January with no other football code around, Tennis is over so to the golf only cricket still be played.
Koala Bear
Guest
Why not.. ? We could take complete control of every stadium in Australia and push the Grooky lads to exasperation levels never seen before.. :D I am sure Kev2018 would approve another well spent $5Om to bid for the Asian Games ... What a wonderful feeling it is to be an "Australian Football fanatic".. total dominance ... :lol: ~~~~~~~~~ KB
Midfielder
Guest
I would love to have the Asian games in Australia ... I would considerit an honour ... would also help with sponsors and government influence as well ... hope FFA can pull it off.
Chuq
Guest
FFA has stated they will be bidding for the 2015AC, but I don't believe it is a pre-requisite for hosting the 2018/2022WC. Surely the 2000OG and the 2003RWC demonstrate that we are capable. If 2018 goes to Europe, and 2022 does not go to Australia, it will likely go to China - meaning it will be 2026 or 2030 until Australia get's another look in.
The Bear
Guest
I wonder if by NOT going for this tourny we may appear to be snubbing our Asian confed. Perceived arrogance, mind games and politics may be potential land mines IF we appear to be overlooking our immediate backyard.
Michael C
Guest
Agreed, it'd be astounding for Oz to score 2018, and just marginally less so for 2022. Agreed re doing the 2015 first.... be interesing to see how the crowds for such an event would compare to some of the shockers of the last Asian cup.........some of the matches COULD be played at Green Gully 'stadium' out a Keilor!!!
Midfielder
Guest
Imagine 2015 Asia Cup, 2019 Woman's World Cup, 2022 WC ... The Australian sporting landscape would be forever changed
dasilva
Roar Guru
If the Asia cup in 2007 was the standard of professionalism expected then I can't see why wouldn't Australia shouldn't be able to breezingly be able to host the competition especially with AFC new push on professionalism
dasilva
Roar Guru
I think it will be held in january. It's distruption ot european cup but so is the african equivalent and the world doesn't revolve around europe.
Luke W
Guest
I don't see why Australia should not host the 2015 Asian Cup. We certainly have the facilities to make it a great event and it would provide a great practice run (not taking anything away from the AC) for a potential WC.
Sam
Guest
Phil I 'd be a bit worried about the crowds. Teams like Japan, Korea and Iran will attract some crowds. But what about the others? God knows we cop it from supporters of other codes about our crowds on this site :) so I would hope we would be able to attract crowds before we proceed. World Cup would be no problem as the best of the best are here.
Dave
Guest
Phil IMO Oz should be bidding for the 2015 AC anyway...maybe there will be some sweetner from AFC that OZ needs to bid for 2015 before AFC will support it's bid(s) for 2018/2022. The decision for 2018 will be made late 2010. In terms of Oz running the tournament there should be no logistical problems although running it in Summer would mean a big disruption for Euro clubs who have AFC players. June would probably be more favoured to avoid such an issue.