Asian Cup 2015: Frank Lowy says Socceroos tournament progress is icing on cake
THOSE who doubted the Asian Cup was going to be a success have had to eat their words. But three months ago, Frank Lowy admitted to host it was a “brave” decision.
FRANK Lowy is shaking his head, even now slightly disbelieving. Two games from the end of the Asian Cup, his beloved Socceroos are in the final and attendances by the end will have reached some 650,000. It is an extraordinary figure, way beyond expectations - or fears, depending on how you look at it.
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Even three months ago, Lowy had admitted it was a “brave” decision to host the tournament, as part of his mission to use football as a bridgehead for Australia to engage with the world.
Plenty of commentators, including this correspondent, thought brave was a very optimistic word. In the end we have had to eat that word and plenty more besides, but how much faith did Lowy have himself on the eve of the tournament?
“Do you believe these things in the beginning? Well, I had a sense - that it was a good thing, and would succeed,” he said.
“You have to work hard, and we had a very good management in place. All avenues were explored, particularly the multicultural make up of our country.
“We expected maybe 500,000 tickets would be sold, then we revised upwards - but no-one expected 600,000-700,000 people, many buying tickets to countries they’d barely heard of.”
That was where the concern lay - that Australians would shun most games outside the Socceroos and their biggest rivals. Instead we have seen China v North Korea sell out, among others, and almost 15,000 on average to see the non-Australian games.
“No one knew how much work was going on behind the scenes, not much noise was made about it,” Lowy said.
“We put our heads together and we explored practically every opportunity that was available, drew management’s attention to it and they did a wonderful job. They did, the staff did, the volunteers did, we have to thank them all.
“I also think we have to give credit to Australians - they will go to interesting things. Not everybody follows football, but nevertheless I think we have made enough noise in the past 10 years or so to show this is the world game, a very interesting game and a good one to watch.
“It has opened our eyes (to Asian football), but also the football itself has improved.
“Many of the teams played good football. Standards are rising in Asia.
“And if you look at our team, it’s not so long since (losing 6-0 to) Brazil and France, but it’s like history now, ice-age history. There is a reason why so much of the world loves football, and Australians can see why that is.”
Those twin defeats ended Holger Osieck’s reign - but how much, it has to be asked, was Ange Postecoglou appointed in hope and how much in expectation?
“If you remember, we had no choice at that time (about sacking Osieck),” said Lowy.
“We had been looking for the next opportunity to have an Australian coach, and we seized that opportunity. I don’t think Ange was a risk - he was told of the expectation, that we want to be in the final. He delivered.
“He said to me after on Tuesday night, after the game, ‘I told you we’d get to the final.’ It was wonderful - but also Australia has changed as a team. While the overseas coaches have done us well in the short term, we needed someone who’s an Aussie to drive the long-term future of the game. It’s a great satisfaction to me, I’m very, very excited about this achievement. It puts the icing on the cake.”
Which is an interesting phrase, for it could apply to the whole tournament in the context of Lowy’s imminent exit as chairman of Football Federation Australia.
“I have to hand the baton on eventually - and the Asian Cup coincides with my time to do that,” he said.
“It’s a very nice thing to have happened to my time here. But we’ve had lots of other achievements, you know we are sitting at over a 14,000 average in the A-League for crowds, who would have thought that 10 years ago?
“To be a mainstream sport is the most important thing. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have to improve, but if we are mainstream, compare that with 12 years ago when we were no-stream. It shows we have done a lot of good things and attracted lots of the Australian viewing public. We’ve done a good job, but there’s always more to do.
“In life, if you reach the top of the hill and there is no more hill, what do you do?”
Originally published as Asian Cup 2015: Frank Lowy says Socceroos tournament progress is icing on cake