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If there were any lingering doubts that Australia is a fully fledged and respected member of the Asian Football Confederation, they were surely dispelled when Frank Lowy handed over Australia’s bid book to host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
Much has been made of the powerful west Asian bloc supposedly being unhappy with Australia’s admission into the Asian realm, so perhaps there was some poetic irony in the fact that it was a Qatari in the form of AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam who formally accepted the bid.
Lowy and Bin Hammam are clearly close, even if the Qatari predictably threw his support behind his home nation in the bidding to host the 2022 World Cup.
Hosting the World Cup remains the ultimate goal for Football Federation Australia, but that doesn’t mean that the Asian Cup should languish in its shadow.
The continental championship is a wonderful showcase of the vibrancy and diversity of Asia, and the chance to showcase such high quality football is hardly an everyday occurrence.
The thought of regional powerhouses such as Iran and South Korea battling it out with the likes of Japan and China on Australian soil is one that should excite every Australian football fan, not to mention the sizeable Asian diaspora who currently call Australia home.
Then there’s the fact that winning the Asian Cup on home soil is an obvious target for the Socceroos, with the chance to lift a major piece of silverware in front of an adoring home crowd no doubt an enticing one.
Improved stadia – at least in terms of general infrastructure – might be one enduring legacy, but surely the strengthening of ties with our Asian cousins is a more important benefit.
It should quash the myth that Australia does not deserve to be a member of the AFC, with the FFA and football fans in this country clearly willing to stake their reputation on running a successful Asian tournament.
“This is the premier football tournament in Asia, our home confederation, and even globally speaking, it’s a huge tournament,” FFA chief Ben Buckley told The Sydney Morning Herald about the bid earlier this year.
“It’s one of the biggest and most-watched events within the Asian region and that’s good for Australia’s reputation in terms of building our profile and hosting major events.”
Too right Ben – and with the eyes of the region to be fixed firmly on sole bidder Australia in 2015, it is incumbent upon football supporters in this country to get behind the tournament and fill the five selected Asian Cup venues.
Just which five venues will host the fixtures is still up in the air, with Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney offering eight grounds between them as potential host stadia.
The age-old rivalry over who should host the final is likely to flare between Sydney and Melbourne once again, although Brisbane’s magnificent Suncorp Stadium could potentially be a dark horse – even if its capacity is a little on the small side.
Whatever the permutations, hosting the Asian Cup is a real coup for football in this country and Lowy and his team should be congratulated for putting Australia in the running so soon after joining the confederation.
It’s a sign that Australian football continues to go from strength to strength, after years of languishing in the doldrums of geographical and political isolation.
There’s big bucks to be made from the Asian Cup – just ask the AFC’s powerful marketing partner World Sport Group – but surely the major selling point is simply the joy of hosting a prestigious football tournament on Australian soil.
The Asian Cup bid is a milestone for Australian football, so let’s hope there are no stumbling blocks along the way.