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.”
Kev
Guest
Sky Blue - Keep digging a hole for yourself because you're doing a great job. Ahh yes the old sleeping giant chestnut. If it hasn't already, soccer will face the same problem that the AFL faces in NSW and QLD and the NRL outside of the two traditional states and that is trying to compete and dislodge a long established rival code is next to impossible. Being first is everything.
Stavros
Guest
Sky Blue, that is a shocker. You are responsible for your own knowledge. What do you know then? Ever heard of Gary Ablett? Do you watch the news at all?
Sky Blue
Guest
Someone didn't take their pill, if AFL is so well organised, how come I, someone who has lived in Australia all my life, cannot for the life of me name an AFL player? Hell I only found out last week that Sydney Swans won it, face it, your little sport is dying. Get out of your redneck hulk smash mode and cry away as your insular little game is swallowed up by football.
Kev
Guest
My my, that 1 vote really stings doesn't it? While we're talking about truth here's a hard truth. If soccer wasn't a pathetic and amateurish rabble for decades and was properly setup and administered decades ago like the AFL is, maybe they would have had enough resources to launch a bid without the need to ask other codes for help. The irony is that the same soccer fans here who are peeved that the AFL didn't bend over backwards to help with the WC bid are the same fans who wouldn't hesitate to bag the AFL if given the chance.
Kev
Guest
pete4 - So you're telling me that that was never a requirement by FIFA no? Last time I checked, that was the biggest sticking point stopping the AFL getting behind the bid.
pete4
Guest
AR - as an AFL coach would say what does it matter if we lost by 1 or 100
Australian Rules
Guest
Um pete4... "AFL fans" didn't bring it up here...Sky Blue, Stevo and WLF did. Obviously that 1 vote still stings.
pete4
Guest
Bad move IMO... SportalAU just tweeted "@Channel7, which once infamously held the rights to football in Aus, has won the rights for the Manchester United & @LFC games in Aus"
Punter
Guest
The greatest lie ever told to AFL kids was that AFL destroyed the WC bid. Want to know what did destroy it? FIFA's greed. AFL certainly did not help, though.
pete4
Guest
Obviously enough of a storm that AFL fans can't stop talking about it 3 years later
pete4
Guest
You left the part out where the USA had a World Cup and did the other sports suspend their season's? No
pete4
Guest
LOL can you point us to your source of information where Lowy says this? A single scrap anywhere?
Australian Rules
Guest
"The only sportring organisation that refused to cooperate in the spirit of the nations bid was Demetriou and the AFL." That is an outright lie. The AFL actually offered to give up more than any other sport. All the AFL's binding, million dollar legal contracts...sponsorships, stadium arrangements, broadcast deals...were all about to be suspended to accommodate a World Cup. After weeks of negotiation, it gave up the MCG...before Buckley then stumbled onto radio and announced that they had access to Etihad as well! The greatest lie ever told to soccer kids was that the AFL destroyed the WC Bid. Want to know what probably destroyed it? That god-awful embarrassing video. And all for 1 vote - what a storm in a tea cup.
zach
Guest
Unfortunately hating is what they do best. The problem was that Lowy tried to use the World Cup bid as a pretext to damage another code. If he had focussed on the bid instead we may have got more than one vote.
Kev
Guest
Why can't soccer fans get it through their heads that not every rival sport is in business to support soccer? You talk about the ludicrous amount in compensation that Demetriou allegedly demanded which if true is silly but you also fail to mention that FIFA's own rules require rival sport codes to suspend their season before and for the duration of the WC. No sports administrator in their right mind would agree to a two month suspension. Stop playing the "Demetriou torpedoed the nations bid card" and call it what it really is. You and soccer fans like you are angry because he scuppered a bid for an event that would have given soccer a boost in this country.
Sky Blue
Guest
Neither will repeating that lie make it true.
Wat Le Fark
Roar Rookie
Not true. The AFL does not have control of the MCG. Demetriou said the WC would be the end of the AFL season and demanded 1.1 billion dollars compensation for not playing at the MCG for 8 weeks. The FFA understandably were not prepared to pay that outrageous ransom and the AFL refused to negotiate any further. The whole tone of the AFL's approach was fark you Lowy, while the NRL were happy to give up ANZ Stadium and Lang Park for that period in 12 years time mind you. The only sportring organisation that refused to cooperate in the spirit of the nations bid was Demetriou and the AFL. That's why they are hated by the football family.
zach
Guest
Repeating this lie over and over again does not make it true. Then AFL made the biggest stadium in Australia available for the World Cup when the AFL had every contractual right not to, but that was not enough for Lowy, who wanted to take Etihad as well and shut down the whole AFL season.
Stevo
Guest
Remember that Lowy's idea for the WC bid was to use it to kick start the HAL. Now HAL can stand on it's own feet and it's the Socceroos that are dragging their feet - so to speak.
Stevo
Guest
He'd already done his job by putting the kibosh on our WC bid.