I see your point. I'm probably over stating the influence of FIFA, but it is a known secret that a lot of what went down in Zurich last week was a direct consequence of the power-play between MBH of Qatar (AFC head) and Sepp Blatter regarding challenging for the FIFA top job. I'm only new to looking at football politics of the Asian variety, but I got the impression (recently when MBH tried to move the AFC HQ from Malaysia) that Mid East nations that make up the WAFF sub-section of AFC aren't too happy with being run by East Asian Nations. Me personally I don't care, we in Australia are still mostly happy to be out of that joke that is Oceania and into regular top level football on offer in Asia (like next month in Qatar). I am a big fan of kiwi football and I believe that like us, to take their game to the next level, they NZF would need to leave OFC and join AFC like Australia did. The way I see this occurring in the future is for OFC to be disband and absorbed by AFC, but AFC has 46 nations with 4.5 WC slots and OFC has 11 Nations for 0.5 slots. The new-AFC would be almost unwieldy and huge. 57 nations covering the globe from Samoa to Jordan is insanely huge, hence why I thought they'd split into WAFC and EAFC. each would get 2.5 WC slots with a playoff to be mandated between the two for the last 0.5. We'd get to play NZ more often than we have in the recent times. I miss that game. It was the only one of the OFC WCQ that meant anything, because of WC1982 and that confederations cup you turned us over for (was it 1997 CCup?), when we were still in the dumps after the debacle of Iran SA2010, showed us that the All-Whites are no mugs at football. and its a easy/fun/cheap great away trip for the Green&Gold Army This would also 'solve' the problem of Wellington Phoenix playing in a different confederation and would open up the way for potential further teams in NZ to join the A-League. I just think disbanding OFC and the E/WAFC solution solves more problems than it creates. although as I said I am new to AFC football politics so I'm always keen to learn more about our new football adversaries Just mussing before my morning coffee, sorry if it comes off as rambling
To be honest it was more than expected considering we were the only country to put our hands up for the bid.
I don't understand why they don't schedule it in June-July. Oh wait, I get it. AFC don't want to collide with the Copa America/Gold Cup. More money from TV rights.
The schedule is decided by the host and Qatar prefer to play in the cooler Jan period. Nothing to do about TV. 2007 was played in June or July remember because of the preffered dates of the hosts.
So why don't Australia play in June-July? I read a couple of reports regarding high temperatures in January.
I would prefer that time of year, but then the venues aren't as readily available and even though its warm, we are still in season at that time of year. Matches would have to be played in the evenings though, with probably 6:30PM and 9PM starts.
It's not too bad, ask anyone to look at the logo without the words and it says, "soccer tournament in Australia" which is what you want from a logo IMO, once we start seeing it plastered all over merch and tickets I think it'll be a grower, certainly it could be worse!
Nah, definitely darker and the kit green is more bottle-green. Either way, that shade in front of pale yellow looks shite.
I like it. Agree with ZZ about the colours though. Could have been a lighter green and it would have been perfect.
It's not that bad. You should also realize the generic similarities between this year's Asian Cup logo to the one for 2015. It could indicate that the same people designed the logo, on behalf of the QFA and FFA.
Lynch on the Asian Cup http://www.smh.com.au/sport/footbal...a-the-respect-it-deserves-20110118-19vfe.html
Sure, the Asian Cup cannot be compared to bigger football tournaments by any means. However, I agree with the general consensus that Asian football is on the rise. I think Australians would appreciate this tournament a lot more, when they host it in 2015.
I think you're 100% right Nina, I think once a World Class football tournament lands smack bang in Australia's back yard for a month, people will get interested in it and buy tickets in the same way they did for the 2000 Olympics football or the 2003 Rugby World Cup. I have a theory that just as the Americans used the success of their National team at Japan/Korea 2002 to boost the marketability of Soccer in the USA, leading to their current growth spurt in terms of MLS attendance. The hosting of the Asian Cup whilst not quite the boost that the world cup would have been, will still create a bit of a feel-good factor for the sport in Australia. By 2015, the A-League will be taking a mid-season break(to accommodate the Asian Cup) from its 10th season (2014/2015) and perhaps this could provide a small boost the the standing of the sport in the Australian Sporting landscape. By no means do I expect a huge big-bang type event, but even a modest reduction in the""who cares its only Soccer"type of attitude you still see a bit of in this country would be a boost worth the expenditure of hosting in my mind. we'll have to wait 4-5 years to see if my hypothesis is correct but I have hope. In 5 years time, the middle class of both China and India will be comparable to what is currently in Europe, this could manifest itself in big numbers of football tourists coming to Australia, or in larger values being taken in by FFA/AFC for sponsorship. All of which will raise the prestige of the event. When we host it will be only the 16th ever Asian Cup, so a long way to go to get to the storied past of the Euros or the Copa Libertadores etc, but as long as we host a successful and well run event(which we will - I cant think of a single reason we wouldn't really), I have no doubt that we will contribute to the growth in Asian football. @Nina: do you think you'll visit Aussie for the tournament? long way off, but no harm in long term goals
Yep, nicely put. I still think Australia needs its own FIFA World Cup in order to give the country a 'proper' boost, in terms of Soccer's growth and popularity. The '94 World Cup really helped kick-start a new beginning for Soccer in the United States, so I think it would be very wise for future FIFA officials to strongly consider giving Australia the chance to host such a major global event. While I also believe the Asian Cup would do its job in attracting new audiences across Australia, I must stress that it's simply not enough and we should be optimistic about hosting the World Cup when the next voting commences in 2014, despite the setback we've suffered over a month ago. Nevertheless, we should think of the 2015 Asian Cup as Australia's chance to 'test the waters' and make sure they can really give this sport a new uplift in the country. I hope and I sincerely believe it would turn out to be a successful tournament. I certainly hope so. It won't be far away from Christmas and New Year, so I'll definitely be there at that time of the season. I just hope our national team would still be worth the fuss by then.
I'll repeat a bit that I wrote after the crushing disappointment of losing the 2022 bid about things that we as football fans in Australia should feel positive about. I had the socceroos down as a major positive going forward and here's why: -------------- 1. The future of the Socceroos. I was there..I saw Die Mannschaft run rings around the creaky old Socceroo defenders in Durban. I stood outside the Moses Mabhida Stadium waiting for my mates to exit so we could get to our coach for the hellish bus ride back to Jo’burg as the German fans danced in the street singing ”Not vun, not two, not three, but four!!” Pim Verbeek’s reign had many fans questioning the future of the national team; our Golden Generation had qualified for two Cups in a row, but had not progressed past the 2nd round in Germany and despite gaining the same points total in Africa, leaving the 2010 tourney after the group stages. But what then? Where were the youngsters to replace our creaky defence going to come from? The general consensus was that qualifying for Brasil 2014 wasn’t going to be enough; we needed to take the country on a ride deep into the elimination rounds much like the USA did in Japorea 2002 to really capture the general public’s attention once again. Well, in the last 5 months, the young Socceroos(u/20s) coached by Jan Versleijen finished runners up in the AFC u/19 tournament in China only falling in the final to our friends from North Korea 3-2 to go onto qualify for the 2011 u/20World Cup in Columbia(July/August). The same u/19s won (yes, we won some silverware in Asia!) the AFF u/19 Youth Championship(Australia, Sth Korea, Vietnam and Thailand competed) Mustafa Amini isn’t just a cult figure under an absurdly cool ranga afro, going on match reports from China he was obviously one of Australia’s best on field in the recent AFC tournament. Our very own Kerem Bulut finished as the Golden Boot of the u/19 Asian Championship with 7 goals. And guess where he plays? Czechoslovakia….he used to play with Sydney FC having learned his trade at the NSWIS before moving on. What does this mean? Besides an indictment on Sydney FC who have let go in recent years: Chris Payne(NQF) and Kerem Bulut(CZE), to me it means the conveyer belt of football talent wasn’t killed by the disbanding of the NSL and the creation of the A-League. The successful u/19’s team also contained players such as Adelaide United’s Matthew Leckie, the Central Coast’s Mustafa Amini, Melbourne Heart’s Eli Babalj and Kerem Bulut formerly of Sydney FC. If anything, it has accelerated it, which brings me to point #2 2. The Joeys (u/17s) again coached by Jan Versleijen, made it to the Semi-Finals of the 2010 u/16 AFC Cup(knocked out by Hosts Uzbekistan) to qualify for the 2011 u/17 World Cup in Mexico (June/July).Two things here, firstly as mentioned above, the conveyer belt of young talent coming through ‘the system’ set up by National Technical Director Han Berger appears to be showing fruit. With Jan Versleijen bringing a continuity to the youth set-up with regards to style of play, a more finished product should be fed up to the Young Socceroos and ultimately the full National team. Secondly, it appears that players are seriously considering the A-League as not only a first level finishing school, but by Jan Versleijen picking players from the HAL he shows that the local league is a valid path to greater footballing honours, first your local state league team, then you’re a-League youth team, onto the national youth set-up and of course then senior A-League caps before hopefully getting selected by the National team gaffer for a senior Socceroos call-up. I believe that save for a horrendous Surat Sukha tackle in October, young Matt Leckie* would have been selected by Holger Osiek for the 2011 Asian Cup squad, before jetting off to further his career/football education in the Bundesliga. I believe that our best young players will always want to test their mettle in the cauldron of European football, but the better the A-League gets, the longer we’ll be able to hold on to them and watch their prodigious talents live and in the flesh. ---------------- **Matt Leckie played 25 minutes last night in the Red's thrashing of NQ Fury 8-1 and he looked great, not at all rusty, making darting runs as per usual, plenty of pace, pin point crosses, almost got a goal himself, I'm not the only one hoping his upcoming move to Borussia MGB in the Bundesliga helps him grow into a great future Socceroo So the u/20 and the u/17s are in their respective 2011 World Cups, plenty to be optimistic about for the future of the socceroos and a good performance as hosts in 2015 I hope!
Wow, that's one very long post. I'm sorry but I had to trim down your quote. Thanks for the analysis. It's encouraging to read about how well our youngsters are doing. The only potential/promising player I'm highly unfavorable of is Kerem Bulut. I'm not fond of him one bit, to be honest, especially now that he's been accused of committing a horrendous crime. Regardless of how good he is, if they do find him guilty, I hope we never see him playing football again. Apart from that unnecessary setback, everything else seems to be encouraging.
no wories about the trimming down, I do tend to ramble a bit what has Bulut been accused of? It's not making news here, perhaps if we make the final of the Asian Cup it will be time for the AFL dirt unit to 'leak' this 'story' to the NewsLtd papers.[/removes tin foil hat] what ever it is, I feel that if you are convicted of a serious crime, you should lose 3 things, your freedom for a period of time (as a punishment), your right to vote, you haven't kept your part of the deal by being a good citizen, so why should you get the privilege of voting? and the right to represent your country in either politics or sport. convicts are not the image we want to be projecting to the world, that image is so 1800's
Latest article on Bulut: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...-bulut-lose-bail/story-e6freuzi-1225978992202 Not looking good. It's a shame, he's a damn good player.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/young-soccer-star-in-gang-attacks/story-e6freuy9-1225956415103 He's got a hearing tomorrow, and hopefully a decision would be made to determine whether or not he's actually guilty of the allegations. Indeed. If he is guilty, there's a chance he might have to permanently surrender his passport to the authorities. Anyway, sorry for going a little bit off-topic here. It just touched a nerve of mine.