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Shooting for goals as the kings of Asia

By K.C. Boey - posted Wednesday, 24 June 2009


It isn't the first time football is being given front-page treatment. Who could forget Kaiserslautern in Germany three years ago, when the Socceroos came within eight seconds of knocking out eventual champion Italy to make it through to the quarter-finals of World Cup 2006.

Australia then was playing as an Oceania nation, having qualified from the Oceania Football Confederation.

Earlier that year, world football federation FIFA had finally acceded to Australia's long campaign to switch domains to the Asian Football Confederation. The move guaranteed a more direct route to qualification for the World Cup finals. The Oceania route is arduous, entailing playoffs against South American teams.

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Yet ambitions for football in Australia are merely one of the other more profound considerations, as football supremo Frank Lowy was to keep reminding Australians over the week.

At Parliament on June 14, industrialist Lowy launched the boldest stroke of all - the Football Federation of Australia's bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. The government, through Rudd, had last December pitched in $45.6 million to back the bid. Turnbull at the launch spoke in unison.

It's not just about football. As Lowy said at the launch, speaking for Australia as an Asian nation, "Asia is on the rise economically, in terms of goods and services, and in football". He was more to the point at the NPC the following day, about what Australia's hosting of the World Cup would do for Australia in the world, "but especially in Asia".

"Asia is where our future lies, economically and in football," he said. The benefits flow both ways, in the sharing of development facilities and training programs in football most certainly.

But what excites Lowy most is what football can do for Australia. "It is the same thing that motivated me to establish the Lowy Institute for International Policy, which I am pleased to say, is making a serious contribution to the discussion about Australia's place in the world."

It is no accident that the institute four years ago ran an international symposium on football diplomacy. And that the man who headed the institute then, highly regarded international relations specialist Allan Gyngell, has been handpicked by Rudd, and next month moves on to head the top spy agency, the Office of National Assessments.

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"Football works at all levels," Lowy is certain. "It speaks to all people. It opens doors and builds friendships like nothing else," says the man who built Westfield into the world's largest listed retail property group by market equity from nothing.

"It can do this better than business; better than governments; better than any individual could ever hope to do. But when it all comes together - football, business, government - it's a very powerful force. And that force can be put to work for Australia's interests in all sorts of ways. I can assure you that this fact is not lost on our prime minister."

It was not lost on Rudd's predecessor John Howard, whom Lowy similarly drew on to persuade FIFA to find Australia a seat in Asia.

Whether Australia gets to host the World Cup, the campaign will solidify perceptions of the country as integral to Asia. That will be the most profound transformation.

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First published in The New Sunday Times on June 21, 2009.



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About the Author

K.C. Boey is a former editor of Malaysian Business and The Malay Mail. He now writes for The Malaysian Insider out of Melbourne.

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