John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year we have witnessed much excitement in Australian soccer. We have had the recent success of the national side in the FIFA World Cup finals, where the Socceroos advanced to the knock-out stages only to fall to the final winners, Italy; the A-League has just started its second season; and Australia has recently qualified for the Asian Cup finals, to be held in September. Indeed, the recent move to the Asian federation from Oceania means that our national side will be regularly playing nations such as Korea, China and Saudi Arabia, which is certainly a step up from playing the Solomon Islands. This is a fantastic move, and one that will be historically regarded as a defining moment in the history of Australian soccer.

Local support for the game is high. Socceroos games, such as the recent home game against Kuwait, have been selling out within 48 hours. We have had record turnouts at A-League games throughout the pre-season, seeing, for example, nearly 7,000 people turn out on a fine Sunday afternoon at the Aurora Stadium, in Launceston, where Melbourne Victory played Adelaide United.

Another key factor behind the newfound success of soccer in Australia has been the shrewd management displayed by the Chairman of Football Federation Australia, Mr Frank Lowy, and by FFA CEO, Mr John O’Neill. These two men have ensured that a sport that was once a byword for administrative incompetence has the best possible framework to build on.

Only the week before last, John O’Neill announced that he would not be renewing his contract, which expires in March, with the FFA. We acknowledge that soccer in Australia is bigger than any one individual, but the sport will miss his expertise and business acumen. I have every confidence that the FFA board will be able to find a good replacement for him and that the quality of administration will continue to rise.

Research conducted for the 2005-06 summer edition of the Sweeney sports report shows that 50 per cent of the adult population is interested in soccer—the sport’s highest level of interest since the report was first published 20 years ago. Soccer’s interest rating is only four points behind Australian Rules football and is eight and 10 points clear of rugby league and union. I note that the research was conducted between October last year and March this year, before the recent FIFA World Cup Finals in which the Socceroos advanced to the second stage. No doubt the coverage and attention paid to the Socceroos’ valiant efforts would have raised interest in the sport even further since that report. Perhaps it is more important that the report surveyed the level of participation in the various sports by adults living in the capital cities. Of those adults surveyed, 11 per cent played soccer—easily the highest-rating winter team sport; six per cent played Australian Rules football; and four per cent and three per cent played rugby league and union respectively.

At the 14 July, 2006 Council of Australian Governments meeting between federal, state and territory leaders, it was decided that all the state governments and the federal government would strongly support a bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. I would like to speak for a moment about what this bid will require. FIFA regulations state that the host nation needs a minimum of 10 stadia, with at least 40,000-seat capacity. Currently, we can meet that requirement at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Telstra Dome, Telstra Stadium, Suncorp Stadium, AAMI Stadium, ANZ Stadium, the Sydney Cricket Ground, Subiaco Oval, the Gabba and Aussie Stadium. However, some venues will need a lot of work before they meet FIFA’s other standards, such as pitch condition. Another issue to be considered is that most of these venues are ovals, and while some can be converted to a rectangular configuration most cannot.

The regulations also state that only one city in the country can have more than one stadium used in the World Cup finals. This is a major hurdle for the bid. Currently, of our 10 stadia with a capacity of 40,000 seats or greater, two are in Melbourne, three are in Sydney and three are in Brisbane. If Australia is to host the World Cup finals, this rule will have to be changed or suspended, or stadia such as Canberra Stadium and Aurora Stadium in Launceston will need to nearly double their capacity.

Another major issue is the FIFA regulation that requires grounds to be unused for eight weeks prior to the finals. Given that all the stadia are currently used by the AFL or the NRL and that the World Cup finals would take place right in the middle of their respective seasons, the number of available stadia drops again. The only solution I can think of is that a major stadium in each city be reserved for AFL or rugby and that the others be rested for the World Cup. Even this compromise would require a tremendous amount of cooperation from the AFL and NRL. But even if that were the case, we would still need to find two more stadia.

A decision will be made by FIFA in 2010 as to who will host the 2018 World Cup finals. It is likely that we will be competing against England and China to host the finals. Neither of these nations will give up easily, and both will make winning the bid a national priority.

If we are being honest in our support to win such a bid, we have to realise that Australia has a lot of work to do. This will require a great deal of money, and much of it will have to come from the Commonwealth. Also, this is something we need to be addressing sooner rather than later. We have fewer than four years to get ourselves into a position where we can convince FIFA that we should host the finals. I hope we will be successful.