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Will/how/when will we become an Asian football nation? It is a question asked more in Australia than “So Sydney is not the capital of Australia?” is in Asia.
The first is something I have asked myself in the distant past but it was the wrong question.
The underlying assumption is usually that this Asian-ness is somehow lacking but it should be asked as to what people mean when they talk about an Asian football nation.
If it comes to engagement with the Champions League then there are other countries that can be lukewarm. If it is a reluctance to sign other Asian players, then you could find other examples around the continent. If it is about general interest in Asian football then there are plenty of rivals for that title too.
You could say that perhaps the one thing in which Australia differs from the rest of the AFC is that it is the only member that actually worries about its interest in Asian football.
In the end though, closer engagement will happen – it is already happening. The amount of coverage given to the start of the Champions League last week was impressive, informative and interesting. The opposition helped but it seemed to mark the first time that a wide variety of Australian media were producing original content about Asian football.
It will happen because as I travel around Asia, the more I meet Australians at all levels. There they are working in media hubs around the continent, there they are working in sports marketing, there they are brokering deals, there they are working as fitness coaches and there they are, playing.
They come younger and younger these days and into a wider variety of positions on and off the pitch. It is interesting to chat to players when they first arrive in Seoul, Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai when it is all very new and novel.
It is not just about what happens on the field, though that can take some getting used to, it is not just about bonding with teammates or the travel and accommodation for away games that surprises, it just about how everything works.
The politics that exist in many places, the decision-making at clubs and how they treat their players is, well, suffice to say, very different.
It has been said that moving to Asia is the easy option for young Australian players but the vast majority of the time Europe is the safer choice.
As in any walk of life, some embrace the change and the challenge, some tolerate and adapt while others find it hard. The more that come, the easier it will get.
In the future these players who have spent time in Asia will come home with real on-the-ground experience of Asian football. They will spread the word. Some will tell coaches and teammates about the players they have seen, some will tell former clubs about promising Aussie players. Some will become coaches and sign stars from their old stomping grounds to the north.
There will just be an increasing of shared experiences, added to the years of Champions League, Asian and World Cups, qualifiers and all the rest. It will be an organic process.
This is not to say, of course, that more could not be done. More enthusiasm would certainly hasten the process, not repeatedly telling fellow officials the exact early hour of the morning it is in Australia when arriving at meetings around the continent would oil the tracks and a few more Asian players down under couldn’t do any harm.
In the end, time is on everyone’s side (assuming Australia’s place in Asia is safe for decades to come and that is another debate). In the coming years, more and more engagement with Asia at all levels on and off the pitch is going to move the global focus of Australian fans and media ever eastward, away from Europe. It could not do anything else.
But Asia is nothing if not diverse. When it comes to football there is no one-size fits all mould. Every country brings something unique to the table and that is also true of Australia. The real question to ask is not when will Australia become an Asian football nation but what form it will take.
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