In a somewhat surprising announcement from the FFA, there will be no 2015 Asian Cup Championship deciders played in Melbourne, the self-proclaimed home of Australian sport.
Michael Brown is the Chief Executive Officer of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the AFC Asian Cup 2015 and is the former General Manager of Cricket at Cricket Australia and spent six years as CEO of the Hawthorn AFL club.
He has declared that the scale and scope of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup makes it one of the world’s biggest and most important sporting events.
More than half the world’s population is based in Asia and the worldwide interest, tourism and revenue that the tournament will generate will surpass anything seen in this country since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The Asian Cup is the third most watched tournament in the world and the 2015 event, with ever growing interest in football in Asia’s developing nations, will be even bigger than the 2011 Asian Cup tournament held in Qatar.
Sydney has been awarded the contract to host the Asian Cup 2015 semi finals, playoff for third place and the final.
Brown says Australia’s biggest city will be the venue for the showpiece matches: “The two semi-finals, the match for third place and the final will take place in Sydney.”
Why then is Melbourne playing such a lesser role in the tournament and no finals games being staged there?
Is this FFA payback for Melbourne’s apparent non support for Australia’s 2022 FIFA World Cup bid because of AFL pressure.
Is Melbourne really the home of Australian sport or just the home of AFL?
Frank Lowy says: “This tournament is the pinnacle for the 46 nations of the AFC who represent more than half the world’s population and some of the most passionate fans found anywhere. We are determined to stage a world-class event that will make Australia and Asia proud.”
The region’s biggest footballing nations Japan, Australia, Korea Republic, Korea DPR and the winner of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup will qualify for the tournament automatically. The other 41 countries will have to play off for the remaining 11 Asian Cup places in the qualification tournament that commences next March.
None the less, Michael Brown admits there are still many challenges ahead to make the tournament the success it needs to be for the AFC and Australian football, especially given some of the comments and negative press from some of his AFL centric former colleagues back in Melbourne.
“Eddie McGuire reckons that the Asian Cup might be a ‘lemon’. Eddie’s a passionate Melburnian and Collingwood president. I have spoken to him and written to Melbourne Major Events to make sure that they understand the contribution governments are making and the value of the tournament to Australia as a whole.”
Brown added: “The A-League is only in its infancy but it’s going from strength to strength.”
“People easily forget that the AFL competition nearly collapsed in 1985 because it was broke and had to go and get funding from all levels of government and start up an independent commission to rebuild itself.
“The NRL had its Super League battle and Cricket Australia had to go through the pain and loss of the World Series of Cricket rebellion in the 1970s and then regenerate and reinvigorate itself, so every major Australian sport has been there.”
“So it is wrong to suggest that this Asian Cup will be a lemon … if anything it shows the size of the opportunity for us to educate people like Eddie about the merits of one of the top three football tournaments in the world.
“We have not had an event of this size since the 2000 Olympics. Forty-six nations representing more than half of the world’s population are competing for this event.”
According to consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers who were commissioned by the FFA to cost the event, the Asian Cup 2015 has the potential to add $230 million to Australia’s gross domestic product – 45,000 overseas visitors, who would spend an average of $5000 each.
On the other hand, governments will subsidise the Cup to a maximum of $61 million – half from the Federal Government with the balance shared among Queensland, NSW, the ACT and Victorian taxpayers.
Victorian and former Socceroo and Melbourne Victory captain Kevin Muscat is disappointed his city will not play a more prominent part.
“The tournament is the second-most important for Australian football after the World Cup and hosting it is consolation after losing the 2022 bid,” said Muscat.
“If we cast our mind back to when we qualified for the World Cup for the first time in a number of years in Germany and the impact it had on young kids and football in this country, this will be huge,” he told reporters.
Sydney staged that remarkable World Cup decider victory over Uruguay in 2005 that got Australia to Germany 2006 and given the new West Sydney Wanderers A-League team and the enormous numbers of people who play football here, the 2015 Asian Cup finals will re-establish Sydney as the home of Australian football.
apaway
Roar Guru
This is now an old old argument but the moment Andrew Demetriou suggested that the AFL would have to cancel an entire season if Australia won the World Cup bid was the moment that support for a World Cup bid died on the vine in Australia's biggest sporting market.
phillip diamataris
Guest
Would it surprise anyone if the opening match of the AFC 2015 Asian Cup Tournament was played in Melbourne??This short sighted article only talks about finals etc. Given that the AFC 2015 Asian Cup event was contracted to Sydney, fair enough. We should all just accept this and hope that the broader national Football community benefits from such an event. I just remind everyone what happened when a 'small' event known as the Sydney 2000 Olympics took place. The opening football match between Australia & Italy took place in front of 100,000 people at the MCG (Melbourne) 2 days before the opening ceremony, not the host city SYDNEY.... Can anyone guess what kind of financial windfall occurs at this level?? A financial windfall that cannot be delivered at any other venue in Australia for such a match. I can't imagine Melbourne Major Events via the Vic Government tipping in the required big bucks & back room support to stage such a tournament if there isn't this kind of pay back.....The FFA has all its bases covered this way and ensures financial security, not too mention, huge attendance figures as well as TV ratings. By the way I am a born and bread Melbourne Victorian!! Therefore, my opinion is not based on parochialism or emotion.........
nordster
Guest
Yep each to their own, i think football gets more than its fair share of illiterates for some reason :)
Bondy
Guest
A.R. The HAL GF was on a Sunday afternoon evening,the National Team played on a Tuesday night vs Japan in Brisbane and S.O.Origin R League was on the next night in Sydney to make a corelation between Sunday afternoon Hal Gf' and a one off International on a Tuesday night at 8.00 pm is not really a true gauge and there was little/limited coverage of Australia vs Japan on the F.T.A.s and News Ltd 24 hrs prior or after, a crowd of 40,000 was considered decent on the roars website at the time but could've been better taking into consideration S.O.O the next evening ,incidentaly the Australia vs Japan was on Fox and a market penertration gauge of around 34% nationally though S.O.Origin went national on F.T.A. live.
Midfielder
Guest
TJ AAARRRRrrrr very true and I did not mention the crime [I was trying not to be to cruel] .... we all saw underbelly... nor did I mention the bogan behaviour of those AFL types ... thank heavens common sense prevailed ...
Midfielder
Guest
Thanks AR glad you have seen the light...
Zac
Guest
You could make that same arguement for EVERY sport played in Australia
Australian Rules
Guest
...perfect response.
Australian Rules
Guest
And as for "poorly researched", I'm the only one who's actually tried to present figures on this thread. Instead of just hyperbole.
Australian Rules
Guest
Don't be so precious Fuss, no-one is making snide remarks. My opinion, and that of MV Dave above, is that for the first WCQ Australian game vs Japan (our biggest Asian rival), a crowd of 40k was below what I was expecting...especially when they filled the stadium weeks before for the HAL Grand Final. That is not a comment that is "hysterical, ignorant, poorly researched & nonsensical"...although your insecure responses probably are.
Australian Rules
Guest
"last 5 years" I also left out the 95,000 v Greece at the MCG in 2006.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
William I think you'll find it's only the anti-football mob on this website, who are making snide remarks about the crowd at AUS v JPN. These people - all AFL fans (you won't find any RL, RU, netball, basketball fans whining about "low crowds") - have no understanding of international competition & their opinions on football issues are: hysterical, ignorant, poorly researched & nonsensical.
Brian
Guest
There's no Ashes in 2014-15 I think its India again or something like that. Also Melbourne will get the opening game and I love football but would still rather have the Aus Open every year than the Asian Cup. Sydney also got the nod because they presume correctly that Melbourne will get the 2015 Cricket World Cup Final
Brian
Guest
What about HAL Grand Finals at Etihad or Sundorp, they have drawn bigger crowds than 39,540
Australian Rules
Guest
I have to agree with Midfielder After watching The Shire, I've been impressed at how "classy" and "international" Sydney is.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
GCS & Australian Rules As a committed football fan in AUS, for me, the AUS v JPN match did not carry the weight of expectancy of a deciding-qualifier. For sure, the opponent is the highest quality team we will face during the WCQs. But, it's the 3rd match in a series of 8 matches & there was little riding on the game - apart from bragging rights. If you can't understand this concept, you don't understand football culture.
Australian Rules
Guest
cheers MV Dave
Australian Rules
Guest
Crowds of 50,168 and 50,334 had packed Suncorp for the past 2 HAL Grand Finals. Soccer was at an all-time high in terms of popularity and media coverage in Brisbane. The game was probably the most important WC Qualifier in Australia (certainly the highest profile game) and the Socceroos have enormous pulling power. As I said, I thought it was a solid crowd but I was expecting 50k+. Now cue pedantic argument with my opinion in 3...2...
TJ
Guest
I would laugh at this but I know Midfielder actually believes this. Two words for Sydney having more class - 'Lara Bingle'.
Evan Askew
Guest
If Sydney People are nicer I'd hate to see what Melbourne people are like?