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Football Federation Australia (FFA) boss David Gallop does not believe it would be a “disaster” for the Socceroos to not qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
With the Socceroos facing World Cup qualifiers in Japan on June 4, followed by hosting Jordan in Melbourne on June 11 and Iraq in Sydney on June 18, Gallop isn’t banking everything on the national side making it.
Gallop says he believes that the A-League is now strong enough and entrenched enough on the sporting landscape to continue to thrive even if the Socceroos don’t play in Brazil next year.
“This will sound a strange thing to say but it’s not a disaster if we don’t make it,” Gallop said.
“I think the game has shifted now so that the backbone is the A-League but certainly it’s that once in every four years opportunity for not only football fans but Australian sport fans to be part of the biggest event on the globe.
“We want to be part of that and it is important.”
There is nothing locked in place beyond the two qualifiers in Melbourne and Sydney next month for the Socceroos, so Gallop is open to offers from anywhere in the country for the national side to play in preparation for the World Cup.
The only condition he has is that it will take funding from the state governments that want to host games and it will have to be commercially viable.
And he says he’d like the Socceroos to play in the opening event of Perth’s new rectangular stadium, scheduled for 2018.
“We need government assistance to bring games to any part of the country, but long-term there is going to be a new big stadium going to be in place by 2018 and wouldn’t it be terrific if the Socceroos were part of the opening event for that stadium,” Gallop said.
“We do have plans for the Socceroos in the next short period but after that everything is open for discussion.
“We’ve had great assistance from state governments that have allowed us to bring Socceroos games with the next two being in Melbourne and Sydney.
“We need the fans to get out to support the game and also obviously the government and stadium operators to give us the incentive to bring games to other cities.”
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