Australia's Asian Cup Bid Advances

The bid to bring Asia's premier football competition, the AFC Asian Cup 2015, to Australia continues with the host of the tournament set to be announced on 6th January 2011 by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The decision will be made at a special AFC Executive Committee meeting, following the AFC Congress to be held in Doha, Qatar next year.

Australia is the sole bidder for the AFC Asian Cup 2015 and is required to adhere to the formal bidding process as designed by AFC.

As part of the bidding process, Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Frank Lowy and Chief Executive Ben Buckley handed over Australia's bid book to AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam on 29th July 2010 at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur. Australia's bid book contained 350 pages of information about how Asia's largest sporting event would be conducted in Australia.

FFA will deliver a Final Presentation and respond to subsequent questions from the AFC Executive Committee on 6th January 2011. The AFC Executive Committee will then deliberate and announce the host of AFC Asian Cup 2015.

Buckley explains "Australia has a good track record of hosting successful major events and we believe the AFC Asian Cup 2015 held in Australia would be beneficial to Australia and the entire Asian region."

Australia's bid to host the AFC Asian Cup 2015⢠has the full support of the Federal Government as well as the support of the governments of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.

Background:

• Australia joined the AFC in 2006, having previously represented Oceania;
• 655 million viewers tuned in to the 2007 AFC Asian Cup (held in Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia) with 748 million viewing the 2004 edition (held in China);
• There was a 434% growth in broadcast coverage hours between 2004 (902 hours) and 2007 (3916 hours);
• Domestically, 2.5 million viewers tuned into Fox Sports over the 160 hours of the AFC Asian Cup 2007 telecast;
• The Australia v Japan quarter-final broke Pay Television records with an average audience of 419,000 throughout the match;
• FFA has undertaken extensive government liaison coordinated through the Football World Cup Bid Government Taskforce (established for both the 2022 FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup 2015 Bids);
• 32 matches (24 group stage/8 knockout) will be played across four States and Territories (QLD, NSW, VIC, ACT) during the 23 day long tournament, currently scheduled for January 2015;
• A number of ancillary events will also be conducted in Australia including the Preliminary Draw, Final Draw, Opening and Closing Ceremonies and Team Workshops;
• The eight stadiums proposed in the Bid Book include Suncorp Stadium, Skilled Park, ANZ Stadium, Sydney Football Stadium, Parramatta Stadium, Canberra Stadium, Etihad Stadium and AAMI Park;
• AFC requires a minimum of four and a maximum of five Stadiums and in conjunction with FFA will undertake a Stadium selection process following the announcement of the host country.

29th July 2010 - FFA SUBMITS 2015 AFC ASIAN CUP BID

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