Socceroos Asian Cup triumph to spark explosion in junior players

AUSTRALIA’S historic Asian Cup triumph is expected to spark an explosion in junior registrations as children follow in the footsteps of their heroes.

Soccer has taken over as one of Australia's favourite sports after the Asian Cup. Students from Coburg Primary School (L-R) Aspasia Broumos, Aashir Hadi, Forhoor Oreijah, Sophie Breen, Briannah McCullough, Felix Fuggle, Matt Kerby (Sports Teacher), Alice Beaton, Ky Furlong, Max Oehlmann and Zachary Bryant with their soccer gear. Picture: Tony Gough

AUSTRALIA’S historic Asian Cup triumph is expected to spark an explosion in junior registrations as children follow in the footsteps of their Socceroos heroes.

With Australian soccer basking in the glory of Australia’s extra-time win against South Korea last week, the game’s national governing body is anticipating a surge in grassroots participation.

Football Federation Australia is forecasting an 8 per cent growth in outdoor club soccer sign-ups this season on the back of the heroics of Tim Cahill (pictured right) and co.

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That growth would see about 45,000 extra players on soccer pitches across Australia.

And at least half of that growth would be a direct dividend of the Socceroos winning the Asian Cup for the first time, according to the FFA’s Community Football Department.

FFA chief David Gallop said the Socceroos’ success and the record crowds, TV audiences and social media interest they attracted would inspire a new generation of children to choose soccer as their sport.

“We are forecasting that all this interest will produce a spike in football participation, with a jump up to 8 per cent in registrations for the coming outdoor club season,’’ he said.

“Every World Cup sees a spike, but having the Asian Cup in our own backyard has been a huge boost to the game.”

At Coburg Primary School in Melbourne’s north, teacher Matt Kerby said his students were living proof of the ­continued growth of soccer’s popularity.

“These days students are not just interested in AFL and cricket,’’ he said.

“There has been a huge ­increase in their interest of soccer.”

The Sunday Herald Sun visited the school during the week, selected a random sample of students across different year levels and asked them their favourite sports.

Half the group of 10 said soccer was their favourite with five favouring the world game, one nominating AFL, one cricket and the others athletics, netball and baseball.

“They are soccer mad here, they play every single recess and lunch and there’s an ongoing game where the points have just continued to accumulate,’’ Mr Kerby said.

This year’s Asian Cup was the most watched in the tournament’s history, with television viewing, attendances and social media engagement all reaching unprecedented levels.

The event’s official Twitter hashtag reach was 2.69 billion at the end of the semi-finals.

Fans watched more than 10 million minutes of event action on the official YouTube channel, its official app was downloaded more than 140,000 times and its Facebook page had 290,000 “likes”.

The fact the tournament happened in prime time, in family-friendly environments in our timezone instead of overseas was also expected to help the cause.

With 1.96 million participants, Mr Gallop said soccer was “by far the most popular team sport in Australia’’ and predicted The Asian Cup would “supercharge that participation’’.

“The Socceroos have truly captured the imagination of Australia with the triumph in the Asian Cup,” Mr Gallop said.

“More than 250,000 fans watched the Socceroos live in stadia, while the Asian Cup final had a TV audience reach of 5.3 million.’’

Australian sports research authority Gemba found soccer was the No. 1 passion among those aged 16-24, with 25 per cent of fans in that age group passionate about soccer followed by AFL and ­tennis.

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Originally published as Socceroos Asian Cup triumph to spark explosion in junior players