The timing was perfect too, with Melbourne Victory playing against Shanghai SIPG the night before, and Sydney FC playing in the same Chinese city an hour or so after the delegates left the Westin Hotel.

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Not that you’d have known, because brilliantly the organisers neglected to invite anyone from the one sport that Australians could chat about in just about any Asian city, and whose teams play right across the continent.

Former Test cricketer and Cricket Australia board member Michael Kasprowicz was one of the sports leaders at the business dinner in Sydney but no one from football in Australia was invited.Source:Getty Images

Instead the delegates were treated to the insights of former fast bowler Michael Kasprowicz, Rugby Australia board member Ann Sherry, and best of all AFL Commissioner Gabrielle Trainor — a trailblazing businesswoman, but speaking on behalf of a code that gets wildly disoriented when it leaves Victoria, let alone contemplates engaging with Asia.

We’d love to know what insights for business the AFL’s one game in China could provide, but in the meantime the organisers of the forum, think tank AsiaLink Business, promise us football will be involved in future events.

“The opportunities presented by sports diplomacy and the business of sport with Asia is not a competition between sporting codes,” a spokesman said in a statement. “It’s an inclusive and forward-looking opportunity, that all sports and sports businesses can be part of.”

Business dinner promoting business and sport links in Asia snubs football

• JOHN WYLIE
• The Australian
• 12:00AM February 22, 2018
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Society is changing. Australia is changing. Sport needs to change, too, if we are to avoid the classic traps of complacency, indifference and overconfidence.

The Australian Sports Commission’s aspiration is for Australia to be the most active sporting nation, a healthy and successful sporting nation, known for our integrity, vibrant participation base, thriving sports organisations and world-leading sports industry, as well as our elite results.

It matters that Australia continues its proud standing and tradition in world sport, that future generations of Australian kids are inspired and motivated to get up and be active, to participate and enjoy all the benefits sport brings.

That inner confidence that they can do it, that they have the skills and ability to belong in sport and enjoy it, will stand them in good stead to be active and healthy throughout life. Sport matters because there’s nothing like it as a force for social change and good. Look at the rise of Paralympic sports and women’s sport.

The epic rise of a middle class numbering billions now unfolding to our north creates vast new markets interested in participating in sport and enjoying elite sports.

Asian governments understand the significance of this and the opportunities it creates for the global projection of soft political and cultural power. Look at the location the Olympic Games: the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea; the 2020 Summer Games in Japan; the 2022 Winter Games in China. Look at the stated intention of President Xi Jinping to build China into a global football powerhouse.

Forward-looking sports and sports businesses are pivoting in this direction. Australian sports research firm Gemba reports that over the next decade the global sports world will shift its axis to Asia, led by China. The industry there alone could be worth $US700 billion ($8.9bn) by 2025.

What an opportunity this presents Australia. Sport is our authentic national brand — and that can’t be manufactured overnight. Tennis Australia is leading the way, with a strong Asia focus. About 59 million people in China watched last year’s Australian Open, Japanese attendance figures doubled, and broadcast rights values are growing sharply. The AFL is trying to get in on the game through the new AFLX format.

Many small Australian ser­vices firms and individual entrepreneurs are already selling their globally competitive professional skills in and around sport, using skills they’ve learned here or relationships they’ve built up through sport. Other sectors have latent opportunity in sport, notably education.

There is a large indirect economic benefit from continued excellence in sport. We must sell brand Australia into Asia, leveraging off our clean, green, healthy image, in particular through food exports and tourism. Having an image as a healthy, active and successful sporting country reinforces the national brand positioning of our food exporters beautifully.

One pressing issue we need to confront in a hurry is about how unfit and obese we’re becoming.

What’s unique and surprising for Australia is the way the traditional bedrock of lifelong physical activity in our country, physical education in schools, is being marginalised in government school curriculums. It’s not a good omen for the country economically as it’s guaranteed to drive up long-term health care costs. A recent BCG report concluded that every dollar invested in sport and physical activity drives a $7 return to the country, largely through avoided future health costs.

The ASC is doing its bit by funding supplementary PE in schools and developing a new national reporting standard for parents about the physical fitness and motor skills of their children. We call this physical literacy. But we can do only so much.

The ASC, Australia’s peak body for sport, has had funding cuts in each of the past seven years, in total amounting to 26 per cent in real terms, while competitor countries have increased their funding. Fortunately, the federal government is stepping up with the forthcoming national sports plan, which will inject more funding into sport. We’re also looking at new non-government sources of revenue such as a lottery.

So there is reason to be optimistic. The revolution in women’s sport shows that the media and our companies remain hungry as ever for new ways to connect with their markets through the most unifying vehicle of all, sport.

John Wylie is chairman of the Australian Sports Commission. This is the edited text of a speech delivered last night to the Asialink dinner in Sydney.

Be good sports and we can have rails run into Asia