By Michael Cockerill
March 11, 2005
Australia is on the verge of ending a 30-year odyssey and becoming a full member of the Asian Football Confederation.
While Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy and chief executive John O'Neill remained cautious yesterday in their response to a statement from Japanese Football Association vice-president Junji Ogura that Australia was lobbying to join Asia, the Herald understands the deal is virtually done.
Ogura is a member of the FIFA executive, and at its meeting in Zurich this week the world body raised no objection to the switch, in which Australia would leave Oceania to become the 46th member of the AFC, the world's largest regional body.
The move has the support of FIFA president Sepp Blatter, and the presidents of the AFC (Mohamed bin Hammam) and OFC (Reynald Temarii). Bin Hammam is due to attend the match between Australia and Iraq in Sydney on Easter Saturday, and the AFC executive is expected to formally invite Australia into the fold two days before he arrives. "For some time now, the FFA has had an objective to join AFC," Lowy said in a statement yesterday.
"Our current affiliation leaves Australia in an anomalous situation in a football sense. It is encouraging that the three key football organisations, FIFA, AFC and OFC, have now progressed their deliberations on the subject - we are very pleased that these relevant bodies have, thus far, indicated a sympathetic view to our position."
Lowy and O'Neill have been lobbying the various parties for the past four months, and the breakthrough came early this year when Asia's marketing partners, the World Sports Group, was convinced that Australia could add value to Asia's sponsorship and television deals, some of which are up for renewal in the next 12 months.
Oceania believes the absence of Australia will dramatically boost the morale of the island nations, most of whom believe Australia provides a glass ceiling in terms of qualifying for FIFA competitions. Only New Zealand is believed to be against the move, but Temarii has the numbers to sanction Australia's departure when the OFC executive meets in Auckland next month.
Oceania will retain its rights when Australia leaves, including its half-spot in the World Cup. The Socceroos would have to battle through at least two rounds of Asian qualifiers to reach the 2010 finals.
Asia's quota of 4½ spots will be retained but ironically the play-off (currently against North/Central America) is likely to changed to a home-and-away series against Oceania.
National coach Frank Farina is ecstatic with the developments, even though Australia's World Cup qualifying path will, in some ways, become more difficult. The flip side is that the Socceroos will no longer have to face a play-off against a South American team.
"This is a godsend, believe me," Farina said. "We can still afford to lose two or three games and still qualify. Finally we'll get a level playing field, and if we're not good enough to qualify this way, then we don't deserve to be there. It's so much better than having your whole four-year cycle hinging on everything falling into place over seven days."
A-League clubs will be the other major beneficiaries, being able to participate in the Asian Champions League and the second-tier AFC Cup.
Former Sydney Olympic assistant coach Steve Darby, who has been coaching club sides in South-East Asia for the past five years, said: "AFC competitions are so well organised. You're talking about access to over 3billion people, games which can pull crowds of over 100,000, and television audiences of over 500million. For Australian clubs and Australian players, it's going to be a massive boost, and I think Asia will get something out of it as well."
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