Australian Soccer to be based... in LONDON!

[n00bie deluxe]

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,5943914-23209,00.html

Interesting.

[BhoysFC1995]

what the heck would be the point of playing home games, away from home?? what ever happened to playing home matches in front of a home crowd?

[n00bie deluxe]

Originally posted by BhoysFC1995
what the heck would be the point of playing home games, away from home?? what ever happened to playing home matches in front of a home crowd?

Fans be damned, it looks like they want the $$$$!! But I can see how it would be easier for their players and how it would be easier to get quality European sides to play them. But it does suck that their fans cannot see them live. BTW, does anyone know how many Aussies live in UK? Is it a lot?

[Canadian_Supporter]

Originally posted by n00bie deluxe
Fans be damned, it looks like they want the $$$$!! But I can see how it would be easier for their players and how it would be easier to get quality European sides to play them. But it does suck that their fans cannot see them live. BTW, does anyone know how many Aussies live in UK? Is it a lot?

Too bad for the fans in Australia, but good news for the Aussies who live in the UK.

[n00bie deluxe]

Would a set up like this be feasible for some countries? For instance, what about some Caribbean countries and England, like maybe Jamaica? I read it somewhere that they got a big turnout when Jamaica played some friendlies there.

And what about France for the French-speaking African countries like Senegal? Now I'm not saying they should all just play in Europe, but if they did some games there, the Euro NTs would be more willing to play them, and the other teams would face better competition and do better in the long run.

[sammydog]

For us it is the smart thing to do. A home game requires players to fly for 24 hours play a game and fly back to europe. At present none of the squad play locally in australia.

This will ensure that our first team will actually get to play together as well as finally getting to play quality sides.

Our world cup qualifiers will all be played within oceania.

There is a very high number of australians currently living in london so support isn't going to be a problem. The australian tickets for the england v australia game sold out in under an hour.

As a fan iun australia I am very happy for this desicion. We may not get to watch the team play live but we can on TV. Previously the team just didn't play. Remember this england game is our first since we played uraguay in late 2001.

With the decision to be based in europe, we already have another game planned for march against yugoslavia. The fans back here will get a chance in june/july as Uraguay play two games against us then in australia.

[babytiger2001]

Originally posted by n00bie deluxe
BTW, does anyone know how many Aussies live in UK? Is it a lot?

From what I've been able to gather in my relatively short time living here in Australia (13 months), not as many as the number of British ex-pats living over here. I think that's a higher ratio... However, I'll take Sammy's word for it that there are a great deal of transplanted Aussies living on UK shores.

Frank Farina, the Socceroos' coach, has said that he's going to be insistent on getting his top-choice side available from their respective club teams for all internationals-- and if that means basing them in a European-located camp, then so be it. That would give the Socceroos a strategic advantage per an end to those means that they haven't had for quite a long time.

Whether it actually happens remains to be seen. But credit to Farina and Soccer Australia for having the guts to suggest something rather revolutionary...

And as far as TV times and "not watching the team live" are concerned, bear in mind that next week's friendly against England kicks off at 6 a.m. Thursday, Melbourne time. Likewise, that's 6 a.m. in Sydney and 5 a.m. in Brisbane and 5:30 a.m. in Adelaide, compared to a relatively ungodly 3 a.m. kickoff in Perth. All in all, that seems like a decent time for many Australians to view a match that is not played on home soil. Not too bad at all, actually-- considering that SBS is planning a live morning broadcast.

Cheers,
William

[Ben OZ]

I agree with sammy, what's best for the team I'm happy with. If having the team based in London ensures at least 5 to 8 internationals a year as opposed to 1 or 2 based in Australia, I'm all for it.

Like babytiger said, there'd be more ex-pat Brits here than vice versa though migration (whether it be short term or long term) from Oz to Britain has been significant since the '50s. Going to pubs in London, the chances seem almost 50/50 you'll get served by a fellow Aussie! I'll have a look around though I'd guess that at any one time, they'd be around 150,000 to 200,000 Australian-born in the UK, many of them being in London.