Sydney to hold Asian Cup's big games
Sydney has been unofficially confirmed as the host city of the semi-finals, the match for third place and the final of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
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By SBS EXCLUSIVE: Philip Micallef
20 Jul 2012 - 3:35 PM UPDATED 3 Nov 2012 - 1:07 PM
Organising committee chief executive Michael Brown said Australia's biggest city was the venue for the showpiece matches.
"The two semi-finals, the match for third place and the final will take place in Sydney," Brown said.
"We don't know which venues will hold the tournament's last four matches because negotiations are still going on.
"Sydney will definitely have two venues for the tournament but we need to finalise the five stadiums by the end of the year.
"This is subject to AFC approval because it is its own event but
we as the local organising committee are all keen to work with them
because they have run such events in the past.
"The same thing happens with the World Cup and Olympics."
The world's third largest football tournament, in terms of television
viewership, will take place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra at
five stadiums to be selected from a shortlist of eight.
"The opening match involving the Socceroos will be in Melbourne
just before the start of the Australian Open tennis, the Australian
team will play its group matches in three cities and each of the four
host cities will stage a quarter-final," Brown said.
Japan, Australia, Korea Republic, Korea DPR and the winner of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup will play in the tournament automatically.
The remaining 11 teams will come from a group qualification phase that commences next March, with the official draw for the qualifying path taking place in Melbourne in October.
The local organising committee has set aside the date of 9 October for the staging of the draw at a city venue.
"The draw will take place in Melbourne on 9 October and the AFC will bring along all its top officials for the occasion," Brown said.
"The draw will determine the composition of the groups to find the remaining 11 teams to play in Australia in 2015."
Brown also said that since the Asian Cup was an AFC event, Australia as host was not at liberty to determine the shape and form of the tournament without the governing body's approval.
'We have recommended the dates of 9-31 January or thereabouts and there are schedules in place that we are working on," he said.
In a wide-ranging interview, Brown addressed a number of challenges facing the organising committee amid lingering concerns over a perceived lack of local interest.
Eddie McGuire reckons that the Asian Cup might be a 'lemon'. How hard is it going to be to convince mainstream Australia that this is indeed a big sporting event?
"Eddie's a passionate Melburnian and Collingwood president. I have spoken to him and written to Melbourne Major Events to make sure that they understand the contribution governments are making."For me the biggest issue we're confronted with is Australia's awareness. Football is a growing sport and the Asian Cup should be the watershed moment for the development of the game in this country.
"The A-League is only in its infancy but it's going from strength to strength.
"But the AFL nearly collapsed in 1985 because it was broke and had to go to an independent commission to rebuild itself.
"Cricket had to go through the World Series in the 1970s to regenerate and reinvigorate itself so every sport has been there.
"So it is a bit unfair to suggest that this Asian Cup is a lemon "¦ if anything it shows the size of the opportunity for us to educate people like Eddie about the merits of one of the top three football tournaments in the world.
"We have not had an event of this size since the 2000 Olympics. Forty-six nations representing half of the world's population will be trying to qualify for this event."
So will Australia organise a successful tournament?
"It's going to be tough and a massive challenge but we know that Aussies are great sports lovers and the event will take place at a very good time of the year.
"We've got the (regional) best of the sport here and people will come to watch the best.
"We need people who are event-watchers to come along.
"We see this event as part of the long-term awareness campaign for football.
"People go and watch T20 cricket because they know it's on even though they might not know much about it.
"So what we're trying to do is build consumers of the game and we know that the best form of consumer is the participant, who is more than likely to follow the game.
"The legacy we are trying to leave from this event is that this is a good sport and people should feel comfortable to be around and involved in it."
How do you sell a match between, say, Oman and Jordan?
"This happens in cricket and rugby world cups where lesser matches draw small crowds.
"The challenge will be to activate those local communities around such matches.
"We also have to be novel with things that we can do, like having a popular ticketing program linked to the A-League clubs, grassroots, schools and local business groups that invites people to games.
"I'd rather have 40,000 fans paying $10 than 20,000 people paying $20 a head.
"We'll tell them they might not necessarily see the most popular teams play but we'll surround the match in question by community engagement strategies like fairs and festivals.
"We will also have ticketing packages whereby, for example, if you buy tickets to the big games you might get a couple of tickets to the smaller games."
Will the draw be piloted to make sure some teams play where they are more likely to attract healthy crowds?
"We are beginning to examine that discussion now.
"We are developing an understanding of where the population groups are.
"For example, if Lebanon qualify it would make sense to have them play in Sydney.
"When Australia played Saudi Arabia in Melbourne two and a half thousand Saudis came to the match unannounced.
"So we will work with the AFC about this but you cannot compromise the draw.
"We are aiming for an average of no fewer than 10,000 people per game."
In a nutshell, what sort of tournament can Australian and foreign fans expect in 2015?
"A festival of football ... a celebration of Australia's rich culture and what we're good at.
"I want it to be a friendly games, a microcosm of our multiculturalism."
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2012/07/20/sydney-hold-asian-cups-big-games