Australia enters East Asian Championship

zhuangzi · Aug 29, 2012

Money talks as Socceroos make East Asia debut

The potential of a multimillion-dollar payday has convinced Football Federation Australia to enter the East Asian Championships for the first time, but A-League clubs will now lose players for two rounds of the forthcoming season in order to help the Socceroos qualify.

After a lengthy deliberation, the FFA has accepted an invitation from Japan to play in East Asia's regional tournament, despite being a member of ASEAN, but with competition falling in non-FIFA dates that means the domestic competition will have to provide at least half of the 20-man squad

Holger Osieck will take to Hong Kong for a five-team qualifying tournament in December. The balance of the squad is likely to be drawn from various Asian leagues, after European-based players were ruled out.

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el-capitano · Aug 30, 2012

We were saying that the more exposure our local players have to international football- the better.

zhuangzi · Aug 30, 2012

Yeah but Cockers manager mates got his ear first so A-League = ruined.