The Socceroos are confirmed as the top seeds in the draw for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia, organisers have announced.
The tournament kicks off on 9 January next year and reaches its climax with the final at ANZ Stadium on 31 January.
Ange Postecoglou's Socceroos will be joined by Iran, Japan and Uzbekistan as the highest seeded countries in the 16-team tournament.
The Socceroos could face old rival Korea Republic, which is seeded fifth, in its group.
The Asian Football Confederation has released the seedings and mechanism for the final draw to take place in Sydney on 26 March.
There will be four pots with Australia occupying the A1 position of Pot 1 and the rest of the countries receiving their respective positions based on the latest FIFA rankings released this week.
The highest ranked four countries will be slotted in Pot 1 and the rest will be slotted in Pots 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
Each one of the four groups in the finals will contain a team from each pot.
The seedings are:
Pot 1 (teams ranked 1-4): Australia, Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan.
Pot 2 (teams ranked 5-8): Korea Republic, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia.
Pot 3 (teams ranked 9-12): Oman, China, Qatar, Iraq.
Pot 4 (teams ranked 13-16): Bahrain, Kuwait, DPR Korea and 2014 Challenge Cup winner.
The draw at the Sydney Opera House will feature the 15 confirmed sides, with the winner of the Challenge Cup which takes place in the Maldives in May, to take the final position.
Oman, Bahrain, Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia all qualified as qualifying group winners, while Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Iraq progressed as runners-up.
China earned its ticket as the best third-place finisher among the five qualifying groups.
Defending champion Japan, host Australia and Korea Republic received direct entry to the finals by finishing first, second and third respectively at the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar while DPR Korea sealed its place courtesy of victory in the 2012 Challenge Cup.
The Socceroos have taken part in two Asian Cup tournaments since it joined the AFC in 2006.
Australia reached the quarter-finals in 2007 where it lost to Japan on penalties in Hanoi.
Four years later it went all the way to the final but again fell to Japan 1-0 after extra-time in Doha.
adelaidebloke wrote:alot of people from asia will flood in from asia for this
I see the FFA are trying to organise a number of Asian business leaders to come to Australia for it. I really hope the country takes note of this and realises that our HAL clubs are capable of similar exposure during the ACL.
adelaidebloke wrote:I would be selling the A league as a whole to Asia as well when they are down here.
Not sure if that would work, does anyone outside of Australia and NZ broadcast A-League matches?
I know the UK gets some games and a highlights show. Fairly sure some of Asia would get something.
But obviously the HAL clubs that play in the ACL regularly are known to Asian football fans. Most have heard of Adelaide United.
adelaidebloke wrote:I would be selling the A league as a whole to Asia as well when they are down here.
Not sure if that would work, does anyone outside of Australia and NZ broadcast A-League matches?
I know the UK gets some games and a highlights show. Fairly sure some of Asia would get something.
But obviously the HAL clubs that play in the ACL regularly are known to Asian football fans. Most have heard of Adelaide United.
BT Sport shows some games in the UK which are on around breakfast time there, the only football on at that time. There is also two games a week shown in sub-Saharan Africa, with coverage in French.
Aurelius wrote:
Not sure if that would work, does anyone outside of Australia and NZ broadcast A-League matches?
I know the UK gets some games and a highlights show. Fairly sure some of Asia would get something.
But obviously the HAL clubs that play in the ACL regularly are known to Asian football fans. Most have heard of Adelaide United.
BT Sport shows some games in the UK which are on around breakfast time there, the only football on at that time. There is also two games a week shown in sub-Saharan Africa, with coverage in French.
Good to know next time I go to Sub Saharan Africa and learn French!
Lol nice, I didn't realize A-League was broadcast overseas at all, maybe the Asia Cup might be an opportunity to introduce the league to Asian football audience, although you would need to somehow get the local broadcasters to show the matches first.
It's still not going to be easy since it's going to be during off-season with not much league activity.
Aurelius wrote:Lol nice, I didn't realize A-League was broadcast overseas at all, maybe the Asia Cup might be an opportunity to introduce the league to Asian football audience, although you would need to somehow get the local broadcasters to show the matches first.
It's still not going to be easy since it's going to be during off-season with not much league activity.
Aurelius wrote:Lol nice, I didn't realize A-League was broadcast overseas at all, maybe the Asia Cup might be an opportunity to introduce the league to Asian football audience, although you would need to somehow get the local broadcasters to show the matches first.
It's still not going to be easy since it's going to be during off-season with not much league activity.
Off-season? It's in January...
Lol my mistake, then it will be an opportunity to introduce A-League to a wider audience, won't get a better chance for a while since WC bid didn't materialize.
Personally I don't see why HAL clubs or the FFA really need to bother exposing themselves to other countries. Its not like they are Man U or Real Madrid and have a large following abroad.
The key issue for the Asian Cup IMO is that the wider Asian community focuses on Australia for that period. Then Australia notices that attention and acts on it in a business sense. Hopefully this leads to Australian business leaders realising one perfect way to engage Asian business leaders is thru HAL clubs playing ACL. This will hopefully lead to those Australian business leaders investing in HAL clubs to help their push for Asian football.
Stuckey wrote:Glad to see China have qualified. It looked a bit touch and go with them. That would have been a few million less viewers if they weren't involved!
Phew! Yes, China in by the skin of their teeth, thank goodness. It wouldn't have looked good if the most populous nation on Earth wasn't represented in the Asian Nations Cup here.
Why are they such under-achievers? I remember their ignominious display, virtually in their own Asian back yard in the 2002 World Cup.
Stuckey wrote:Glad to see China have qualified. It looked a bit touch and go with them. That would have been a few million less viewers if they weren't involved!
Phew! Yes, China in by the skin of their teeth, thank goodness. It wouldn't have looked good if the most populous nation on Earth wasn't represented in the Asian Nations Cup here.
Why are they such under-achievers? I remember their ignominious display, virtually in their own Asian back yard in the 2002 World Cup.
There's so many problems with the football in China, the root to pretty much all of them is that the Chinese FA is not an independent entity but a branch of the Sports Committee, a Government organization, effectively this means football is used for political purposes rather than a sports one.
So from top right down to the grassroot level, players are picked based on non-football reasons, if you're not part of the system you never get a chance.
I have no doubt that China have incredible potential as a football nation, they have at least as much if not more potential than Japan and Korea combined, but unless they change the system which is rotten to the core they won't progress.
Stuckey wrote:Glad to see China have qualified. It looked a bit touch and go with them. That would have been a few million less viewers if they weren't involved!
Phew! Yes, China in by the skin of their teeth, thank goodness. It wouldn't have looked good if the most populous nation on Earth wasn't represented in the Asian Nations Cup here.
Why are they such under-achievers? I remember their ignominious display, virtually in their own Asian back yard in the 2002 World Cup.
There's so many problems with the football in China, the root to pretty much all of them is that the Chinese FA is not an independent entity but a branch of the Sports Committee, a Government organization, effectively this means football is used for political purposes rather than a sports one.
So from top right down to the grassroot level, players are picked based on non-football reasons, if you're not part of the system you never get a chance.
I have no doubt that China have incredible potential as a football nation, they have at least as much if not more potential than Japan and Korea combined, but unless they change the system which is rotten to the core they won't progress.
I thought that fixed it? Didn't Beckham fly in to be a football ambassador for China? He didn't say there were huge issues!
"The Australian" newspaper had an article about chasing trade in Asia, particularly with key trading partners China (population 1.35 billion), South Korea (pop. 50 million) and Japan (pop. 128 million). The article reminded me how huge those population numbers are.
Abbott commented on the issue, and made the observation that Australia had to also build on the human relationship with these partners. All 3 nations are in the Asian Cup being held in OZ, and through football is one good way to build on personal relationships. I'm sure we will be the perfect hosts and use the occasion of the Cup to build on those relationships and also expand trade.
Con M wrote:"The Australian" newspaper had an article about chasing trade in Asia, particularly with key trading partners China (population 1.35 billion), South Korea (pop. 50 million) and Japan (pop. 128 million). The article reminded me how huge those population numbers are.
Abbott commented on the issue, and made the observation that Australia had to also build on the human relationship with these partners. All 3 nations are in the Asian Cup being held in OZ, and through football is one good way to build on personal relationships. I'm sure we will be the perfect hosts and use the occasion of the Cup to build on those relationships and also expand trade.
Australia is now ranked below Uganda and Estonia in the world rankings.
But it doesn't matter because we have a plan right????
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. That's why I succeed." -Michael Jordan
Black_Panther wrote:Australia is now ranked below Uganda and Estonia in the world rankings.
But it doesn't matter because we have a plan right????
Rankings. Really? I'd rather use my eyes
Rankings have been wrong since they started. Asian cup the test. If we go and smash it and win we will go up a few rankings but still be behind teams we would beat
Black_Panther wrote:Australia is now ranked below Uganda and Estonia in the world rankings.
But it doesn't matter because we have a plan right????
Which groups were Uganda and Estonia in at the World Cup?
How is that relevant?
What group was Sweden in?
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. That's why I succeed." -Michael Jordan
