Australia's lukewarm relationship with ACL not a problem

Expert

26th May, 2016

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Will Graham Arnold find a way for the Socceroos to score? (AAP Image/Joe Castro)

John Duerden

Expert

26th May, 2016

While Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory didn’t get as far as the Western Sydney Wanderers in the Asian Champions League, both provided a good deal more excitement than the 2014 winners.

Sydney’s clash with Shandong was especially dramatic. It had everything: early goals, late goals, spectacular goals, open goals, missed penalties, a red card, a bit of bad feeling and a lot of good feeling that anything could happen.

Melbourne’s exit the previous evening was not quite the same roller-coaster ride but a late goal from Besart Berisha put Kevin Muscat’s men a goal away from overcoming Jeonbuk Motors and progressing. The last seven minutes or so at Jeonju World Cup Stadium were tense for the home fans.

After the game, Muscat said that the gap with the Asian elite – and Jeonbuk is certainly part of that as the Koreans headed towards a seventh last-eight appearance – is closing. And he is right.

Both Jeonbuk and Shandong just about deserved to go through but the games were tight contests and genuinely enjoyable.

The debate remains over whether Australian fans have really embraced Asian football. Earlier this week, Sydney FC CEO Tony Pignata suggested they haven’t.

“To be honest, I still don’t think people in Australia really understand the magnitude of the Asian Champions League and just how hard it is to get this far,” he said.

“We’ve been doing it now for ten or so years and we need to understand what a truly massive competition it is that we’re a part of.

“When you travel around and see how people in other countries have grasped the size of the tournament, it would be fantastic to see our sports fans here do the same here.”

Sydney’s 9,451 attendance was certainly disappointing but then take the big Iranian and Chinese teams out of the equation (and these two nations love this tournament more than any other) and it is almost par for the eastern zone and better than most in the west.

Of the 32 teams, Sydney’s attendance was the 13th highest with Melbourne in 16.

Some in Australia beat themselves, or their country, up a little too much when it comes to the Asian Champions League.

I’ve said before that even on the continent, there are countries with a similar fickleness towards the tournament (the general football public start to get interested roughly around the last eight stage) but what is different about Australia is that it is the only country which seems to worry about it.

There is an argument to be made that when Asia embraces the Asian Champions League to a greater extent than now, then so will Australia.
Seeing a vibrant tournament being played out to the north with full stadiums and amazing atmospheres would make the competition more attractive to everyone and one people are desperate to be part of.

I remember talking to a television commentator in Australia who described the enthusiasm the network had for the tournament when Aussie teams first entered, only to arrive in Asia and see stadiums that were virtually empty.

This has improved. The stature of the competition is rising – helped hugely by the massive surge of spending in China which has lifted interest, profile and a desire to defeat these newly rich teams.

Compared to a decade ago, when it was hard to read anything about games beforehand, see much on television or follow the action online, there have been massive strides.

That doesn’t mean there is not more Australia could do in terms of engagement with Asia – a different issue to the Champions League – and adopting the ‘three plus one’ rule is surely a no-brainer.

But when it comes to the Champions League, in terms of attendance, media coverage and general, Australia is certainly not the best but is far from the worst.

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