Well, it was a matter of when, not if. I warned about it in my SBS blog last Friday, and now it’s official. Qatar has joined Australia and Japan in officially announcing its intention to bid for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, thus splintering the desired one-bid support of the Asian Football Confederation into three distinct West, East and ASEAN camps.
“The Qatar Football Federation has today sent a letter to FIFA in which it officially declared its candidacy for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups,” said QFF general secretary Saud Al Mohannadi. “We have the stadiums and we have experience hosting top sports events. We don’t want to rush into anything, we need to find out what the full requirements are, but we are interested.”
Australia is in a heap of trouble already, even before taking on the might of the European bidders, and it hasn’t even negotiated the exclusive support of the AFC.
For all its insignificance in the world scheme of things, Qatar has a distinct advantage in a ready-found champion of its cause in AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam, a scheduled dry run in the form of the 2011 Asian Cup, almost limitless funds that will put Australia’s bid money of $45.6 million in the shade and the novelty of being possibly the first Middle Eastern and nominally Muslim state to host an Olympics or a World Cup.
Nothing to be taken lightly.
Just as the recent predations of the Chinese and Korean leagues on Australian football talent must be addressed forthwith in a serious and concerted way by Football Federation Australia.
My friend and Roar colleague Mike Tuckerman has written a great piece for Goal.com on the player raids that this week have stepped up with interest in yet another Griffiths brother, this time Adam.
If Adam goes to FC Seoul and Simon Colosimo to Chunnam, that would make it four Australian players who have signed on with K-League teams this A-League season. Travis Dodd, rebuffed in Japan, could well follow.
On top of that, and as feared, Joel Griffiths is lining up a loan move to join his brother Ryan at Asian Champions League contenders Beijing Guoan and Mark Milligan seems destined to ink a deal with Shanghai Shenhua.
The J-League’s “Asian berth” is having an immediate impact on the Australian league by stealth. As Korean players are getting picked off for the Japanese league, so the Korean league must replenish its own stocks.
It’s not good enough for the FFA to continue with its head in the sand approach to this pan-Asian threat.
If we can’t keep a player such as Joel Griffiths from wanting to go to a club like Beijing then something is seriously wrong.
Let’s raise the salary cap, introduce an “Asian berth” of our own and stop persisting with this unrealistic notion that the Australian lifestyle alone is enough to keep our best players here – or lure back those still enjoying careers overseas.
In this brave new and ever expanding circus of big-money Asian football, safety-first thinking’s just not going to cut it anymore.
It’s time to take a few leaps of faith.
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