Australia’s former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and FFA Chairman Frank Lowy center left, at Parliament House in Canberra. AP Photo/Rob Griffith
The bid to bring the AFC Asian Cup 2015 to Australia continues with the host of the tournament set to be announced on January 6, 2011 by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Australian football is poised, in the next three months, to discover whether they will be hosts to two prestigious major international football tournaments: the 2022 World Cup and the 2015 AFC Cup. We have never hosted two major FIFA sanctioned football Cup tournaments on Australian soil before, apart from the under-20 FIFA World Cup. However, this time it will be our senior Australian national team that will take centre stage within seven years of each other.
The decisions will be made at a special conference in Zurich for the World Cup on December 2, 2010, and following that, the AFC Executive Committee Congress meeting to be held in Doha, Qatar on January 6, 2011.
Apart from the World Cup bid book, Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Frank Lowy and CEO Ben Buckley handed over Australia’s bid book to AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam on 29 July, 2010 at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur. The book contained 350 pages of information about how Asia’s largest sporting event would be conducted in Australia.
Australia is the sole bidder for the AFC Asian Cup 2015 and is required to adhere to the formal bidding process as designed by AFC. However, it is most likely a formality now that Australia will win the bid – one down and one to go.
FFA will still be required to deliver its final presentation and respond to subsequent questions from the AFC Executive Committee on 6 January 2011. The AFC Executive Committee will then deliberate and announce the host of AFC Asian Cup 2015.
“Australia has a good track record of hosting successful major events and we believe the AFC Asian Cup 2015 held in Australia would be beneficial to Australia and the entire Asian region,” said FFA CEO Ben Buckley.
“Australia is a sports loving nation and without doubt this tournament would be welcomed by all Australians. Further to that more than 27 per cent of Australia’s overseas-born population is from Asia and 24 per cent of Australia’s longstanding migrants, who arrived before 2002, are Asian-born,” he said.
Australia’s bid to host the AFC Asian Cup 2015 has the full support of the Federal Government as well as the support of the governments of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.
So what does this mean to us the football family? The Australian football community can rejoice in the knowledge that at international level we have done a marvelous job in getting our Australian national team where it is today because of the very hard work done by Frank Lowy, Ben Buckley and the FFA support staff.
On top of that, the Matildas have made Australian history with ground breaking on field achievements – heading to another World Cup as Asian champions.
However, the cost so far has been enormous to the HAL with neglect, and it has taken a battering from the falling attendances; because so much time and effort was put into Australia’s international football ambitions in bringing these two FIFA sanctioned tournaments to Australian shores under mounting pressure from the football family. Was it worth all the effort and pain?
If Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley can pull both events off and the HAL survives until next season then yes, it will be hailed as the greatest achievement Australian football has managed. Because the real winners here will be the Australian domestic league.
This will give the HAL its springboard that Australian football has never had before – an abundance of financial investment in monitory and media attention for 12 years with a television media deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars – also, drawing upon the best young athletes who will want to be part of something that is truly global with the eyes of Asia and the rest of the world focusing in on Australia.
For those who wonder why the Australian government wants to invest large sums of money in Australian football, well its for what it can bring on the international stage for Australia’s business opportunities, and an elite sporting profile, at the very highest levels, which will reflect that Australia is a “can do” nation, and wants to be out there with the very best.
TCunbeliever
Roar Guru
Alright Fussy.. If you think there's something a bit iffy about the crowd figures I'm not going to be able to sway you. I'm in Melbourne currently but this year managed to go to Sydney and attend a game at the SCG for the first time. It was a wet afternoon but despite the rain there was a huge amount of people there in the red and white! Just under 30,000 was the official attendance (pretty good for a wet day) and it seemed about right.. But frankly, while the AFL may own the Swans, they do NOT own the SCG. The SCG is independent of the AFL and measures and records attendances itself, without AFL input, supervision or control. I have heard nothing about 'free tickets' being available in my time there, and pretty much everyone I saw seemed to be wearing something that identified themselves as a supporter of either side, so whether they paid or not they were still there because they wanted to see one side win! James has a good point though.. I never take much notice of TV ratings because they are based on such a small population sample. If they could actually detect through the network transmissions exactly who was watching what, then there might be something in them.. Furthermore, a great many sports enthusiast likes to watch their games in a pub / bar environment. But the more we go on the further away we get from whatever it is this thread is about.. Umm.. The AFC Championship in 2015?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
TCunbeliever The reason I mentioned the TV ratings is b/c something smells fishy to me about the very large Swans attendance figures. I don't live in Sydney, but used to visit regularly for business. During the AFL season, I have never met a single Sydneysider, who ever knew who the Swans were playing that week-end. Whilst I have no evidence, ever since the AFL took over management of the Sydney Swans from the former owner Geoff Edelstein there have been consistently strong rumours that 25-40% of the Swans home attendances are the result of free tickets being handed out in the Sydney market. As I said, I have no evidence, but we know that the TV ratings can't be wrong ... or, at least, if they are wrong, then, in the absence of "foul play", errors in the TV ratings should be "systematic errors" that won't discriminate for, or against, any particular television event.
TCunbeliever
Roar Guru
Well that's good news, isn't it? That's for the info and link, buddy!
TCunbeliever
Roar Guru
Fussy, read what I wrote, when re-read your response. Is there any relevance? No. I never said that AFL was the biggest or strongest code in Sydney. Jimbo said that the Swans were unsuccessful, and my point is that despite the AFL having a smaller support base than the NRL in Sydney, the Swans attendances at their games is significantly higher than the attendances for any other football club of any other football code in that area. This year their lowest attendance in Sydney was 23,000 and their highest (non event/final) was 43,585. An avg 0f 30 k. Compared to the average of the most popular Sydney NRL clubs (20k Canterbury, 18 k Wests, 16 k St George) and A-League (9 k Sydney FC, Newcastle 8k.) there is a pretty strong argument that the Sydney Swans are the biggest and strongest sporting club in Sydney.
Norm
Guest
-"Re. the China thing ! – from what I’ve heard the response was pretty much what they were hoping for."...they musn't have hoped for much.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Norm----yes its me these Aussie Rules devotees hate my new name... :D you may have noticed my comments are deleted on the AFL tabs before they are read---yet Mr Football is allowed to roam free at will where ever he likes..
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Ha, ha, Big, Al you must have ADHD you even made a comment on the thread. Do I need to hold your hand to take you back to a thread you claim doesn't exist..? Punter----care to repeat what you said----if it is voted down again you will directly know who was responsible.. :D
BigAl
Guest
Oh that !!! - I must admit that event was always under my radar - I thought you were refering to the AFL's latest Irish gig.! Re. the China thing ! - from what I've heard the response was pretty much what they were hoping for. Also, you've got me intrigued about the '...Beautiful line by Punter' as I'm seeing nothing ?? - not even any sign of the old... (Comment deemed poor by Roar community – click to read) message fron Roar !! I'd be more than happy if you could enlighten me.
Norm
Guest
Just like old times KB...err..AF
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
TCunbeliever How do you reconcile the consistently poor tv ratings in Sydney for Swans matches? E.g. Round 1, 2010: Sydney v St Kilda (2nd best AFL team in 2009), Sydney TV audience - on Free-to-Air television!! = 82k Round 2, 2010: Sydney v Adelaide Sydney TV audience (FTA TV) = 54k I won't go through the whole 22 rounds. Source: http://www.tvtonight.com.au/category/ratings
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Norm, get the bus ready we are back in business... :D
Norm
Guest
jimbo Doris tells me she's thinking of coming out of retirement for this one.
punter
Guest
Thanks AF.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
TCunbeliever Every match of the 2007 Asia Cup was only televised, but only on pay tv - Foxtel. I provided a link to an article, which stated: * In Australia, the 2007 Quarter Final match: Australia v Japan, broke Pay Television records with an average audience of 419,000. For comparison purposes, I'm sure there would be an industry-accepted formula used to convert pay-tv ratings to an equivalent FTA ratings figure.
Cpaaa
Roar Pro
Thanks Chuq.
Chuq
Roar Pro
Hi Cpaaa, No it doesn't mean we get the Women's World Cup - it does mean that we get the Confederations Cup in 2021 though!
TCunbeliever
Roar Guru
I'm sure there are literally millions unaware about the AFC bid.. Perhaps tens of millions. But if we win it it'll be a great test run for the Association Football World Cup. As for comparing it with the 2000 Olympic Games and the 2003 World Cup, these are very high profile international sporting events, which would have bought a large number of international sports fans across with it. I don't think the AFC is quite in that league, though no doubt there will be quite a few Aussies who do go along and check it out regardless. I'm just curious about the potential for the local tevevision audience for this event.. Anyone got any figures on how the more recent AFC cup rated in Australia?
TCunbeliever
Roar Guru
lol.. While the Swans aren't the most profitable sporting club, do you fail to notice that they attract by far the largest attendances to their games of ANY Sydney based sporting code? You can blindly support Association Football as much as you want (and good luck to you and your code, I'd much rather us all be working together but if you want to be bitter go ahead) but don't try and suggest the Swans don't have good figures!
jimbo
Roar Guru
Australian Football, I'm getting more confident about this as things get closer. The Asian Cup of 2015 is already in the bag! All this scandal means the delegates will have to try and pick the best bid and Australia is one of the best. The US had it 16 years ago so that might go against them, especially if they are trying to buy votes or swap them with England. I'll organise a couple of gala prawn nights at the RSL and a couple of beach babes for the FIFA delegates when they hit Coolangatta just to make sure of it! :)
jimbo
Roar Guru
You mean the shysters from the AFL and VFL Pip? We're very nervous up here in NSW and Sydney in particular, about how much of our taxpayers money is going to help kick start another loss making Australian Rules team in Sydney.