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We lost the battle for the 2022 World Cup, and the failure to do so should only inspire us to the one thing that is still better than hosting a World Cup: winning it. That will start in Qatar this January with the Asian Cup finals.
I see Johnny Warren smiling up there knowing something we are yet to experience, and at the same time we are learning along the way what football is all about.
Life and football are not always about fairness: you can only try your best. Perfection is impossible.
Goals are hard to achieve, rewarding when we do and disappointing when we don’t. In order to get a result, one goal is enough.
Yet there doesn’t always have to be a winner and loser.
These are some of the reasons as to why football is the world’s game. For the way it is played on and off the field transcends into everyday life experiences and emotions. Football brings opposites together and can remove religious and political stigma.
This January marks the fourth year since Australia was accepted into the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Qatari, Mohammed Bin Hammam, the President of the AFC, had struck a deal with Frank Lowy, chairman of the FFA for the inclusion of Australia into Asia.
These two men are complete opposites, yet one of the same. One is a self-made billionaire, Israeli Jew, who spent time in a refugee camp and was a former fighter in the Israeli Golani Brigade.
Bin Hammam, on the other hand, is a devout Muslim that was born into prosperity. His country of origin, Qatar, does not recognise Israel as a state.
The irony to all of this is how a Jewish and Muslim man could see beyond their political and religious beliefs for a united and better future for Asia through football.
Is it just coincidence that both men would then go on to challenge the other for the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup?
Is it coincidence that the Australian and Qatari national teams could met in the Asian Cup finals just four weeks later?
We may have been out-muscled in the race for 2022, but the time is right, for the Australian national teams to reveal who is the real superpower of Asian football. To be placed in the history books as the football Kings and Queens of Asia.
Could it be our destiny that the Asian Cup be handed over by the very man that approved Australia as part of the Asian Confederation in the first place, and in the country of his birth?
The same man that out-played Frank Lowy in the battle at Zurich?
Like always, it’s only a game, but with football there is always something more to it.
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