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There’s something special about the Copa America, especially if you are over this side of the world and able to watch some glorious football along with a breakfast of dog soup and rice (sorry, just watched the NRL Footy Show and was feeling hungry).
Late morning football feels decadent, but in this case it’s entirely healthy.
But what if Australian fans could watch it with more than interested neutrality? What if the Socceroos could actually be in it? It is a long shot but it may just work.
The South American biennial bash has a history of being open to outsiders. The continent has a limited number of teams as it is, and when you get the same old names in World Cup qualification and at the regional tournament too, it can be as predictable as an episode of Home and Away.
So a little new blood is welcome and while this Centenario version is all about the CONCAFAF region turning ten into 16 in a United States-hosted festival of football, there has been Asian involvement in the past.
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Japan appeared in the 1999 version and then was invited to participate in 2011, but was eventually unable to do so following the tragic earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated parts of the country.
Back in 1999 however, it was fantastic timing for the Samurai Blue as the 2002 World Cup co-hosts obviously had no qualification games to think about and so a worrying lack of competitive action (South Korea took part in the 2000 and 2002 version of CONCAFAF’s competition, the Gold Cup).
“It was perfect experience for us,” then coach Philippe Troussier told me. “We really needed to play against tough opposition and that is what we had. We were far from home and nobody expected anything from us so we could play without too much pressure to get a result but we were still in a very competitive environment.”
Japan wrangled an invite for a number of reasons. Firstly, there have long been close ties between Brazil and Japan in both the football and non-football fields.
And then, perhaps more importantly, the Japan FA developed a very good relationship with its Argentinian counterpart that continues to this day. Being on the good side of the two main powers in South America turned out to be valuable. Other countries were happy to see Japan invited, the team was not seen as too strong but decent enough, and from a corporate and marketing point of view, Japan was an attractive proposition.
The latter reason is why China was invited in 2015. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that getting the world’s most populous country, one that is desperate for some international action, to take part would be a big deal. China, in the end, couldn’t do it due to prior commitments but it could happen again, especially given the growing commercial ties between the Middle Kingdom and South America.
Australia obviously struggles to compete with that in terms of population and size of market. But there are other ways. The Socceroos are the Asian Champions. If Copa America want to invite the number one Asian team, then officially, it is Australia. For future tournaments, it could well be that more than one Asian side would be invited and if so, Australia along with a ‘bigger’ nation would be a great choice.
Imagine this kind of calender: 2017 Confederations Cup, 2018 World Cup, 2019 Asian Cup and 2020 Copa America. It doesn’t get any better than that.
It is not easy though. It is about making connections at FIFA meetings, trying to organise as many friendlies as possible. Australia may be closer to South America than any other member of the AFC but Japan has played ten friendlies with CONMEBOL opposition this decade, compared to the Socceroos’ three.
Sure, it may not happen, but if you don’t try, you don’t know. With a little time, patience and imagination, it could happen.
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