2018 / 2022 W.C BID
21 December 2008
Written by: Scott Weigand
Fifa president Sepp Blatter announces both tournaments to be awarded combined
'Tis the season to be jolly. With christmas around the corner it appears FIFA may have given Australia a small gift this christmas with a card saying "merry christmas, now show us you deserve to host a world cup and we will give it to you".
Perhaps that is a little optimistic but certainly the fact that FIFA will be awarding the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World cups at the same time whilst at the same time allowing bidders to bid for both tournaments adds more optimism to the cause.
As has widely been voiced in public circles that 2018 is likely to return to Europe following two successive cups away from footballs richest continent, Australia is likely to "hedge its bets" and place a bid for both. With England the likely destination for 2018, it means bidders for 2022 wont have to go up against European bidders, nor for that matter bidders from the CAF and COMNEBOL confederations (Africa and South America) due to those confederations hosting the previous two world cups earmarked for 2010 and 2014 respectively.
Europe hosting 2018 would mean Australia could only realistically get opposition from the USA who have already hosted a FIFA world cup fairly recently in 1994. There could be opposition from China however and the aim of the FFA and Frank Lowy should be to get the AFC and its president Mohammed Bin Hamman to unite Asia and support one bid to increase the AFCs chances of hosting its second world cup finals following the success of the 2002 combined Japan and South Korea tournament.
Something that weighs in Australia's favour over the USA is the continued growth of football in the most populated continent on the planet, Asia. The most recent tournament in Germany had its biggest TV audience from Asia and with Australia hosting a tournament in a much more favourable time zone for the bigger markets of China, Japan and Korea it could mean an all time record world cup viewing audience.
However, Australia's isolation and lack of infrastructure are issues which the FFA need to address in their bidding process. A recent independant report conducted by Price Waterhouse Cooper on behalf of the FFA showed the FIFA world cup to be 5 times bigger than the Olympics and an expected 1 million plus international tourists with a massive $5 billion added to the local economy. For Australia's bid to be a success, the FFA in consulation with the federal and state governments must demonstrate to FIFA and its members that Australia can cope with this influx of international and Australian fans. There will need to be improvements to airports, trains, buses and roads to accomodate the extra traffic generated by the event.
Thankfully, unlike the Olympics the tournament will be spread throughout Australia not just in Sydney with the major capitals of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane certain to host games with the likes of Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Newcastle and Hobart making up the numbers.
New stadia will need to be built and existing stadia will need either renovation or increased capacity or both. However one thing that Sydney 2000 showed the world is that Australians love their sport, they will support big events and make a huge success of them.
Now is the time for all of us to get behind football, attend A-League matches, go to all the Socceroos matches and help put Australia on the map and gain acceptance into the world football communbity once and for all.
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