Football in Australia owes a lot to former Prime Minister John Howard. Following many years of mismanagement at the professional level and with the game at its lowest ebb, it was Howard who stepped forward to provide the necessary funding for the reform process. In 2003 The Report of the Independent Soccer Review Committee into the Structure, Governance and Management of Soccer in Australia – known as the Crawford Report – was published. The game introduced new management headed up by Frank Lowy who accepted a personal invitation from the former Prime Minister to take charge of the new governing body for football.
Following the publication of the report and the return of Lowy, a new professional league backed with a broadcasting contract worth $120 million with Fox Sports was established, while the Socceroos qualified for their first World Cup in 32 years. However perhaps the most crucial part of the game’s reform was the successful bid to move Australia from the floundering Oceania Football Confederation to the quickly rising football power of the Asian Football Confederation.
Following two successful FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns through Asia, Australia will now host the confederation’s flagship event – the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. Before the opening ceremony of an event expected to attract a TV audience in excess of 2.5 billion and 45,000 overseas visitors to Australia, Leopold Method spoke with the former Prime Minister to get his view on the international benefits of Australian football’s move to Asia and the significance of hosting our first major AFC event.
Prior to the Crawford Report football was in big trouble with significant debts and average attendance of just over 4000 for the National Soccer League. What led you to intervene in leading reform for football?
One of the great myths about soccer in Australia is that it was not played a lot until the last 30 or 40 years. Soccer has always been very widely played at a junior level in this country, the problem was how it was played at a top professional level. It seemed to me that once that could be sorted out it had enormous potential because there was a natural spectator base and if they were given the right incentive, and the right competitions could be organised, then it could happen.
Reform had been tried before, notably Ian Knop stood down the Chairmanship of Soccer Australia in 2002 after failing to get the Board engaged in the reform process. What made you confident you could change the game for the better?
Ian Knop did a good job and he remains very devoted to the game. I thought that getting someone like Frank Lowy was very significant because Frank was someone who had a real passion for the game and he had been quite heavily involved as I understood earlier through the Hakoah club in Sydney. He had great business skills and he couldn’t have been as successful in business as he’d been without having a good understanding of what the public would like and what they would respond to.
I think one of the keys was to end some of the built in ethnic rivalries. I think something that clamped the game a lot in earlier years was the excessive focus on the ethnic identities of certain teams, I never thought that was a good thing. Obviously people from different parts of the world have come to live in Australia and they all loved soccer but the trick was to take advantage of their love of the game but at the same time not perpetuate by-gone rivalries which frankly most people didn’t want planted into Australia.
Not all of the Crawford recommendations have been actioned. Are you happy with the approach taken and the FFA’s governance?
You could not be other than happy with what’s happened because it’s been successful. The A-League has been a huge success and going to it quickly was a sensible thing to do. Getting Frank [Lowy] involved was very, very significant, and providing the financial assistance was also very significant. The trust the Government invested in the reforms has been amply repaid. We now have a game that attracts tremendous crowds.
The decision to play the A-League in the non-traditional football months, I think that was smart, it was a risk but it was very smart and it made a lot of commercial sense and it has been well and truly rewarded.
During the recent ‘State of the Game’ address David Gallop said “that the game’s governance structures have been a work in progress since the reform process of the Crawford Report in 2003”. Do you think improvements could still be made?
I think that’s always a sensible attitude for a sports administrator to take, that you can always improve. I wouldn’t presume to tell the FFA what improvements could be made, I think they’ve done extremely well and I have been extremely lucky to have two people who have had successful careers in administering other sports, I think that shows the wisdom of Frank Lowy to have got John O’Neill and then David Gallop both of whom have been very successful in the two rugby codes.
The idea that you should find someone with an exclusive soccer background never made any sense if the right people with other sports backgrounds were available because the challenges in many respects are similar no matter what code of football it is.
The biggest change to football since 2003 has been the move away from Oceania and into the Asian confederation. What opportunities does the sport of football offer Australia from an international standpoint that other sports can’t?
Well the greatest asset is that it’s the world game, it has a far greater each than any other sport. Rugby Union has a good reach but nothing like soccer and of course Rugby League has a fairly modest international reach. Cricket, a game I love very much, it has an intense fervent support in certain parts of the world, an absolutely none in other parts. So the greatest single asset it brings to Australia internationally is that it is the world game, and nobody can argue with that. It makes perfect sense for us to be in the Asian area, it chimes with other associations, but critically it is a world game and there’s no game that will challenge it’s position.
What kind of benefits do you think Australia can get from football’s position in Asia?
Well, it’s already happening. The level of support for the game in Australia continues to rise. Clearly anything that fosters friendly linkages with other countries through a combination of regional series such as the Asian Cup, that will bring tourism benefits to Australia.
The focus on tourism generally associated with sport is very important, not just in soccer but other sports as well, because cashed up fans from other countries will come and watch games in Australia. We’ve seen that particularly with rugby union, with the tours, the World Cup and the British Lions – that kind of thing will happen increasingly with soccer as well.
The Asian Cup being hosted in Australia with a potential TV audience of more than 2.5 billion. What can Australia do to ensure they reap the benefits that can come with hosting the event?
The greatest legacy will be for people to go back and think ‘gee, wasn’t that well run’. I think sometimes we can fret too much about this concept of a legacy from a sporting event – if it’s well run, and the people of Australia, which I’m sure they will be, are hospitable to the visitors, there will be a lastingly positive atmosphere just as people left the Olympic Games in Sydney with very warm feelings about Australia. Likewise the many people who came the Rugby World Cup in 2003 left Australia with very warm feelings about our country.
I’m sure if, as I expect very much to be the case, the event is well organised, the same warm feelings will depart with people who visited us and that’s the greatest legacy – for people to say it’s been well organised, the people of Australia were friendly, if people go away with that feeling that’s the greatest legacy we could ever hope for.
Are you much of a football fan yourself?
I played soccer for five years after I left school in a church competition in Sydney, it was a very large competition between about 1956 and 1961. Whilst I follow the two rugby codes very closely, I follow it and having played it I certainly understand it. Like everybody else if I get the opportunity I watch it on the television and I certainly hope that I can get to some of the games for the Asian Cup.