Football Federation Australia Submission to the Foreign Policy White Paper February 2017
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Page |1
Football Federation Australia
Submission to the Foreign Policy White Paper
February 2017
Page |2 Contents 1. Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 3 2. Why Football? .......................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Participation .................................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 Viewership .................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Cultural Understanding & Engagement ........................................................................................ 7 3. Australian Football in Asia & the Pacific: ................................................................................... 8 3.1 Football Organisations: ................................................................................................................ 8 3.1.1 Fédération Internationale de Football Association ................................................................... 8 3.1.2 The Asian Football Confederation ............................................................................................. 8 3.1.3 The Oceania Football Confederation ....................................................................................... 10 3.1.4 The ASEAN Football Federation ............................................................................................... 10 3.2 Football Competitions ............................................................................................................... 11 3.2.1 FIFA Competitions – Qualification and Tournaments .............................................................. 11 3.2.2 AFC Competitions – Qualification and Tournaments .............................................................. 12 3.2.3 The AFC Champions League ..................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Sports Diplomacy and FFA Projects ........................................................................................... 14 3.3.1 Embassy Engagement and Match Activations ......................................................................... 14 3.3.2 Memorandum of Understanding – J.LEAGUE .......................................................................... 15 3.3.2 Just Play India & Just Play Pacific ............................................................................................. 15 3.3.3 ASEAN Women’s Administrator Workshop ............................................................................. 16 3.3.4 MIKTA ....................................................................................................................................... 16 4. Recommendations: ................................................................................................................ 17 4.1 Australian Sports Diplomacy Framework.................................................................................... 17 4.2 Different mechanisms of sports diplomacy ................................................................................ 17 4.3 Continued support in the hosting of major events ..................................................................... 17
Page |3
1. Executive Summary
“Football is the world game.”
This claim is made on the basis that it is played and watched by more people, and is ingrained in the
culture of more nations than any other sport on Earth. This is particularly true in Asia, where, despite
the vastness and diversity of the continent in terms of geography, language, religion and culture, one
pastime more than any other has consistently united the 4.4 billion who call the world’s most
populous continent home – football.
In Australia, where football is sometimes referred to colloquially as ‘soccer’, the national governing
body of the game is Football Federation Australia (FFA). FFA is responsible for managing the Caltex
Socceroos, the Westfield Matildas, various National Youth Teams, the Hyundai A-League, Westfield
W-League and the FFA Cup.
Since January 2006, FFA has been a member of an Asian supranational organisation, the Asian
Football Confederation (AFC), which is responsible for administration, continent-wide competitions
and development of the game in Asia. The AFC is comprised of 47 nations from the Middle East,
Central Asia, South Asia and the ASEAN region. In 2012, FFA also joined a smaller regional body – the
ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), which includes the ASEAN nations, Australia and Timor-Leste.
As the Asian Century progresses and as the middle-classes of Asia continue to grow, football will
become increasingly important to Asia. Over 80 million people across Asia played football in 2006.
By 2020, this number is projected to increase to an excess of 380 million. Professional football
leagues will continue to develop, and governments and corporations will continue to make
substantial investments in the growth of the game – as evidenced by China and India’s initiatives
over the past year. More Asians will be playing and watching the game than ever before. On this
basis, football will become even more central to Asian society and culture.
Prior to 2006, FFA was part of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), the AFC’s Pacific-based
counterpart, ensuring deep historical footballing ties with the nations in the Pacific.
FFA is one of the few Australian organisations to enjoy full membership of both an Asian and ASEAN
supranational body, and through its memberships, there is a unique platform for all levels of the
Australian Government, business and society to engage with both Asia and the Pacific.
A certain level of engagement already occurs through football, in a number of different ways:
Participation in numerous men’s, women’s, senior and youth competitions at a national
level.
Participation in AFC club competitions, such as the “AFC Champions League”;
The increasing political and governance role FFA is playing in Asian football;
The numerous football and social development projects FFA and its partners are involved
with in Asian countries;
The promotional work that FFA’s national teams and Australian players and coaches do
while they are in Asia;
The unique potential football offers to connect people with shared interests.
Page |4
The benefits which stand to be made by both Australia and Asia via engagement through football are
immense and wide-ranging. They include hard benefits, such as improved trade-relations and deal-
matching, through to softer benefits of strengthened personal relationships, relaxed environments
for diplomacy and business negotiations as well as enhanced understanding and trust.
Despite the current level of engagement, it is clear that football has the potential to deliver to an
even greater level for the Australian Government and Australia more holistically. Without proactive
steps to establish new structures or processes, Australia will miss opportunities to fully exploit the
engagement possibilities provided through football in Asia.
This white paper submission writes in support of the following criteria, and specifically, how FFA and
football synergises with those criteria:
Australia is an influential player in regional and international organisations.
Australia uses a range of assets and capabilities to pursue our international interests.
2. Why Football?
2.1 Participation
Despite the vastness and diversity of the Asian continent, in terms of its geography, religion and
culture, there is one common pastime which unites the more than 4.4 billion people who inhabit the
most populous continent on earth – Football. Football is played by more people in more countries
than any other sport in Asia. In 2006, it was estimated there was already in excess of 85 million
people playing football in its various forms. This exceeds by more than 20 million the number of
people who play football in what is perceived to be its traditional home, Europe, and is greater than
the combined number of people playing football in South, Central and North America and the
Caribbean.
All AFC CAF CONCACAF CONMEBOL OFC UEFA TOTAL
Players1 (Asia) (Africa) (Caribbean, (South (Oceania) (Europe)
North & America)
Central
America)
Male 80,075 44,940 33,071 24,703 486 55,283 238,558
Female 5,102 1,361 10,038 3,074 56 6,364 25,995
Referees 673 630 1,133 168 32 2,422 5,058
Total 85,177 46,931 44,242 27,945 574 64,069 268,938
% of 2.2% 5.2% 8.5% 7.5% 4.7% 7.6% 4.1%
Population
Total 3,870,439 909,575 518,613 374,235 12,252 844,677 6,529,791
Population
1
Fédération Internationale de Football Association, The Big Count, FIFA, Zurich -
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/bcoffsurv/bigcount.statspackage_7024.pdf
Page |5 Importantly, Asian nations provide two of the top three football-participating countries globally, China and India, and four of the top 10, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In recent times, there have been government initiatives launched to increase grassroots participation and technical development in countries. China ‘s Football Development Plan aims to have 50 million players active in the sport, with 30 million of those being elementary and middle school students, by 20202. India’s Mission 11 Million aims to expand grassroots football to over 12,000 schools across 37 cities countrywide, with the end outcome training 11 million children in football by the time of the 2017 U17 FIFA World Cup, to be hosted in India3. In the Pacific, there has been a range of grassroots football programmes launched in various countries with the assistance of the various governments and NGOs designed to encourage participation, such as Just Play. 2.2 Viewership Even more than playing football, Australia’s closest geographical neighbours enjoy watching the game. Asian television viewership of professional football eclipses that of other sports and significantly exceeds the viewership of football on other continents, where broadcast ratings are already high. A high viewership in Asia is in part due to population size, but it clearly is also due to an insatiable appetite to consume professional football. The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil saw the Asian television market have a projected in-home reach of 758.7 million, the highest of any of FIFA’s regions. China led the way, responsible for 252.3 million people – 12% of the global total. 4 2 “China aims to become football superpower ‘by 2050’ 2016, BBC, 11 April, http://www.bbc.com/news/world- asia-china-36015657 3 “’Mission 11 Million’ to kick off as India follows China’s lead’ 2016, Reuters, 21 June, http://in.reuters.com/article/india-soccer-project-idINKCN0Z70KK 4 Table - Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA World Cup Brasil Television Audience Report , FIFA, Zurich - http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/tv/02/74/55/57/2014fwcbraziltvaudiencereport(draft5 )(issuedate14.12.15)_neutral.pdf
Page |6 Many countries had the tournament displayed on multiple channels, as well as urban and regional media5: It is also worth noting that for many countries in Asia, the FIFA World Cups are broadcast at unfavourable times – often having matches kickoff between midnight and 6am. In 2002, when Korea and Japan hosted the event, the Asian market was responsible for almost 50% of the total broadcast figures6. 5 Table - Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA World Cup Brasil Television Audience Report , FIFA, Zurich - http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/tv/02/74/55/57/2014fwcbraziltvaudiencereport(draft5 )(issuedate14.12.15)_neutral.pdf 6 fFalvs graph
Page |7 The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup was also a very attractive event in Asia, supplying once again the largest amount of viewers by FIFA region and 43.3% of the global total. The final match, which saw Japan take on the US Women’s Team, saw 11.6 million people from Japan tune in to the broadcast7. The 2015 AFC Asian Cup, which was hosted by Australia, set records as the most watched event in the tournament’s history. China led the way with the broadcast numbers again, with the cumulative average viewership of the event standing at 950 million at the conclusion of the semi-final stage, and the cumulative average viewership finished at 182 million. In Japan, 21 million people tuned in to watch the quarter-final match against the United Arab Emirates. In Korea, 18.2 million people – 37% of the country’s population – watched the semi-final against Iraq. 8 2.3 Cultural Understanding & Engagement Whether on the basis of participation or on the basis of viewership, football is the most popular sport in the world. Moreover, apart from the sheer weight of numbers participating and watching the game, football is the sport most ingrained within Asian countries from a cultural perspective. This is anecdotally apparent any time an Asian national team takes to the field for an International Match, whether it is a Friendly, AFC Asian Cup qualifier, FIFA World Cup qualifier or AFC Champions League match. Football is understood by all of Asia and the Pacific, and every single country has involvement in some of the biggest tournaments in world sport. Football is already a way of building relationships between Australia and Asia and the Pacific, but as time progresses, the number of Asians who have a direct engagement with the game is going to increase, and the opportunities for engagement via football will only become greater. 7 Table - Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada Television Audience Report , FIFA, Zurich - http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/tv/02/74/59/85/fwwccanada2015tvaudiencereport_ne utral.pdf 8 http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/article/asian-cup-smashes-audience- numbers/pp1ebmxdio8k1gibyf93a54dx
Page |8
3. Australian Football in Asia & the Pacific:
3.1 Football Organisations:
3.1.1 Fédération Internationale de Football Association
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the world governing body for football and
is comprised of 211 Member Associations - more than the membership of the United Nations. FIFA is
also comprised of six continental confederations. Football Federation Australia votes as a member of
FIFA Congress. FIFA is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.
List of FIFA Confederations
Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asia
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Europe
Confederation of North, Central American and North, Central America and the Carribean
Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)
Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Oceania – the Pacific
South American Football Confederation South America
(CONMEBOL)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) Africa
3.1.2 The Asian Football Confederation
The AFC was founded in 1954 and its administrative headquarters are located in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. The AFC is responsible for the administration of football in Asia. Among its various
responsibilities are: regulating the game, drafting and implementing laws to improve the sport,
boosting grassroots and youth football, and conducting major competitions.
The national governing body of football in Australia is Football Federation Australia (FFA). On 1
January 2006, in a landmark moment for Australian sport, FFA assumed full membership of the AFC.
This was a transformational moment for Australian football on many levels – tougher and more
frequent international competition for teams, a larger and more complex political and governance
framework in which to operate, and the opportunity to forge new relationships in the largest
confederation of FIFA.
The AFC is comprised of 47 different Member Associations, of which FFA is one. AFC groups its
Member Associations into five separate regions: East, West, South, Central and ASEAN. Australia is
grouped within the ASEAN zone, and whilst certain competitions are organized on a zonal basis, the
majority of competition occurs across and between the entire AFC membership.
This gives FFA, and therefore Australia, an excellent opportunity to ‘reach-out’ to each and every
corner of Asia.
ASEAN East South Central West
Australia China PR Bangladesh Afghanistan Bahrain
Brunei Chinese Taipei Bhutan Islamic Republic Iraq
of Iran
Cambodia DPR Korea India Kyrgyzstan Jordan
Indonesia Guam Maldives Tajikistan Kuwait
Laos Hong Kong Nepal Turkmenistan Lebanon
Page |9
Malaysia Japan Pakistan Uzbekistan Oman
Myanmar Korea Republic Sri Lanka Palestine
Philippines Macau Qatar
Singapore Mongolia Saudi Arabia
Thailand Nth. Mariana Syria
Islands
Timor-Leste UAE
Vietnam Yemen
FFA recently celebrated ten years as a member of the AFC, and in that period of time, the level of
executive involvement in the AFC has increased over time. Ms. Moya Dodd, a Director on the Board
of FFA, currently sits on the AFC Executive Committee and was the first female to be elected as a
Vice President of the AFC. She also played a leading role in the reform of women’s football at FIFA.
In addition to Moya’s position on the AFC Executive Committee, Australian representation exists on
a number of other committees at the AFC:
AFC Committees with Australian Representation
Competitions Committee Legal Committee Marketing Committee
Organising Committee for AFC Social Responsibility Committee Technical Committee
Asian Cup 2019
Women’s Football Committee
The appointment of Australians to these committees provides clear evidence of FFA’s success in
integrating into Asian football over ten years.
P a g e | 10
3.1.3 The Oceania Football Confederation
Prior to joining the AFC, FFA was a member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), the
continental organisation responsible for the development of football in the Pacific and the
management of the OFC Nations Cup and OFC Champions League. They were founded in 1966 and
they are headquartered in Auckland.
Member Associations of the Oceania Football Confederation
America Samoa Cook Islands
Fiji New Caledonia
New Zealand Papua New Guinea
Samoa Solomon Islands
Tahiti Tonga
Tuvalu Vanuatu
In 2006, FFA left the OFC to join the AFC, but a strong working relationship and cooperation still
exists between the FFA and the OFC, as well as some of the Member Associations across the Pacific.
FFA and OFC work together on the sport for development programme, Just Play, and the New
Zealand Women’s Team has recently played several matches against the Westfield Matildas.
3.1.4 The ASEAN Football Federation
The ASEAN Football Federation is a regional organisation that works to develop football in the
ASEAN region, as well as administering a number of ASEAN-exclusive football competitions, including
the AFF Suzuki Cup and AFF Women’s Championship. They are headquartered in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Member Associations of the ASEAN Football Federation
Australia Brunei
Cambodia Indonesia
Laos Malaysia
Myanmar Philippines
Singapore Thailand
Timor-Leste Vietnam
FFA has been a member of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) since 2013, and regularly
participates in ASEAN competitions. Similarly to the AFC, FFA is also involved at an executive level on
various AFF committees, and also hosted a Council Meeting in Sydney at the end of 2015:P a g e | 11
AFC Committees with Australian Representation
AFF Council Women’s Committee Development Committee
3.2 Football Competitions
3.2.1 FIFA Competitions – Qualification and Tournaments
The process to qualify for the largest single-sport competition in the world, the FIFA World Cup, can
take over two years. In the current qualification process, the Caltex Socceroos have visited nine
different countries across the Asian continent, and reciprocal home matches have also been played.
These provide powerful sports diplomacy opportunities for governments that can be leveraged.
Teams Played by Australia in 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification
Jordan Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan Bangladesh
Saudi Arabia Japan
United Arab Emirates Iraq
Thailand
The tournaments themselves – both the 2014 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil, and the 2015 FIFA
Women’s World Cup, held in Canada, saw Australia play teams from Africa, Europe, South America,
Asia and North America.
Teams played by Australia at the 2014 FIFA World Cup / 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup
United States Sweden
Nigeria Brazil
Japan Netherlands
Chile SpainP a g e | 12 3.2.2 AFC Competitions – Qualification and Tournaments Where the FIFA World Cups feature opposition from across the globe, the AFC Asian Cup and its Women’s variant feature teams exclusively from Asia, giving the Australian Government and businesses opportunities and points of engagement with some of our closest neighbours. In women’s football, the Westfield Matildas won Australia’s first piece of senior AFC silverware in 2010, with a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win against China in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. They subsequently made a second successive grand final in 2014. In 2015, Australia hosted and won AFC’s premier continental men’s football competition on home soil for the first time. The strength of the tournament was evident across a number of metrics; including broadcast reach (see section 2.2 Viewership), international fans travelling to Australia specifically for the AFC Asian Cup, total ticket sales and the economic impact ($46.9m AUD in direct expenditure). The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was successful in raising the profile of Australia in Asia and demonstrating the diverse multiculturalism that exists within Australia, in a way that only football can. Diaspora communities across the country united behind their country’s team and also Australia, and there were a number of matches not featuring the Caltex Socceroos that sold out. The tournament average attendance was 20,300.
P a g e | 13
Importantly, a number of the teams that featured in the competition are significant trade and
diplomatic partners of Australia:
Teams Featured at 2015 AFC Asian Cup
Australia Japan
South Korea North Korea
Bahrain United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia Oman
Uzbekistan Qatar
Iran Kuwait
Jordan Iraq
China PR Palestine
Teams played by Australia at the 2014 AFC Women’s Asian Cup / 2015 AFC Asian Cup (Games)
Japan (2) Vietnam
Jordan South Korea (3)
Oman Kuwait
China PR United Arab Emirates
3.2.3 The AFC Champions League
9
The AFC Champions League is the premier club completion administered by the AFC and generally
involves a third of the member associations that have membership of the AFC. The competition was
won by the Western Sydney Wanderers in 2014 in front of a full stadium in Saudi Arabia. The 2017
iteration of the competition will involve three Australian teams, playing against opposition from a
number of countries:
Countries with Teams Playing Against Australia in 2017 AFC Champions League
Japan China
Thailand South Korea
The Philippines
9
Salah Malkawi via Getty Images.P a g e | 14
While there is variance in which teams are placed in each competition group, historical trends have
seen Australian teams generally play against Japanese, South Korean and Chinese teams in the group
stage. This is due to regulations splitting the continent into a “West Zone” and “East Zone” until the
final stages.
3.3 Sports Diplomacy and FFA Projects
The creation of the Australian Sports Diplomacy Strategy in 2015 by the Australian Government and
adoption by agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade has created new
opportunities for FFA to contribute in this space.
With the 2015 AFC Asian Cup notably the highest profile sports diplomacy event FFA has been
involved in over the last two years, there have been a number of other developments in the sports
diplomacy space:
3.3.1 Embassy Engagement and Match Activations
With a large number of Australian teams travelling throughout the world, FFA has been working with
Australian Embassies and High Commissions in those countries to build Australia’s profile abroad via
public diplomacy activities.
Over the last year, there have been a number of activations from our national teams:
National Team Activations in Country
Thailand Caltex Socceroos running a skills clinic for Thailand youth.
Cambodia Joeys visiting an orphanage in Cambodia for a skills clinic.
United Arab Emirates Caltex Socceroos running a skills clinic for an Australian International
School.
Portugal Westfield Matildas having a meet and greet with schoolgirls studying near
the team’s base.
Iraq FFA worked with the Department of Defence to facilitate a friendly match
in Baghdad between Australian Task Group Taji & the Iraqi Security Forces.P a g e | 15 3.3.2 Memorandum of Understanding – J.LEAGUE In 2016, FFA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the J.LEAGUE to explore a number of areas of collaboration, including youth tournaments, administrator exchanges and a firm commitment to sports diplomacy. At the end of the year, administrators from FFA and a youth team from Perth Glory travelled across to Japan for activities under the MOU, with the team’s involvement in a youth tournament funded by the Australia Japan Foundation. 3.3.2 Just Play India & Just Play Pacific Under the Australian Government’s Pacific Sports Partnerships & Asian Sports Partnerships program, FFA continues to work on the implementation of award winning sport for development program Just Play in partnership with the Oceania Football Confederation. The program, which engages children aged 6-12 through football and uses the game to teach important social messages, has been operating in the Pacific since 2009 and recently expanded to India in 2016. FFA Chairman Steven Lowy AM and CEO David Gallop AM signed a MOU around the governance of the program with Indian counterparts President Praful Patel and General Secretary Kushal Das.
P a g e | 16 3.3.3 ASEAN Women’s Administrator Workshop In 2016, FFA began working with the Australia – ASEAN Council to host skills development workshops for female football administrators in the ASEAN region. The first workshop was a huge success, spanning two weeks and saw participants in both Sydney and Canberra. Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia were represented in the first workshop, which will continue over 2017 and 2018 with different ASEAN nations sending a representative each time. 3.3.4 MIKTA In 2016, FFA worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to organise grassroots football activities in commemoration of the MIKTA bilateral partnership. Young girls from the Mexican, Indonesian, South Korean and Turkish Diasporas in Australia came together along with the Westfield Matildas for grassroots football clinics that also involved Ambassadors and consular staff from each of the countries. The event demonstrated the power that football has to connect and unite five geographically, culturally and linguistically different countries.
P a g e | 17 4. Recommendations: 4.1 Australian Sports Diplomacy Framework FFA would like to formally reiterate its support for the Australian Sports Diplomacy Framework, created by the Australian Government at the beginning of 2015. A formal acknowledgement from the Australian Government of the impact that sport can play in creating diplomatic opportunities and building bilateral relationships has facilitated further engagement from FFA in this space. FFA has tailored its approach to sports diplomacy based on the Framework, and a number of the initiatives that we have pursued as an organisation over years since the strategy was established fit underneath the four principles of the Framework – particularly with regard to connecting people and institutions, enhancing sport for development and showcasing Australia. When considering the Vision and Mission of the Framework, the focus for sports diplomacy initiatives is designated as the Indo-Pacific, but the establishment of the Asian Sports Partnerships in 2015-16 has allowed new opportunities and engagements with Asia, where FFA is very well connected. Additional support for sports diplomacy in Asia would allow FFA to make further significant contributions to bilateral relationship building. Football has the ability to assist with relationship building like no other sport due to its universal reach and understanding and as such, we would strongly encourage the continuation and expansion of the Australian Sports Diplomacy Framework after 2018. 4.2 Different mechanisms of sports diplomacy The most significant Sports Diplomacy grant programs – the Pacific Sports Partnerships & the Asian Sports Partnerships – focus on delivering sport for development programs to countries. FFA is a strong supporter of sport for development and is proud to contribute to the Just Play program across the Pacific and India. We would welcome any additional sports diplomacy programs that provide opportunities for different types of collaboration with existing sporting bodies in Asia. Australia is seen as a leading nation in Asia for football across a number of areas and there have been requests for technical experts. FFA already runs administrator workshops for Asian football administrators, and Australian football administrators consult on projects in Asia, but additional grant funding opportunities would facilitate different types of engagement that would be well received. Moreover, these sorts of capacity building or consulting arrangements have the capacity to be short term arrangements, allowing for engagement with more countries. 4.3 Continued support in the hosting of major events The 2015 AFC Asian Cup provided an outstanding ability to showcase Australia to the entire continent of Asia and on a global scale. Compounding the benefit of hosting a football tournament was that countries across the continent of Asia had a direct investment in the football matches as
P a g e | 18 their teams were participating. Moreover, it activated diaspora communities living in Australia that implicitly understand and support football, as opposed to other sports. The AFC 2015 Asian Cup was a massive success, and it would not have been possible without the support of the Australian Government and the Governments of the states and territories where games were held. We would recommend that the Australian Government continue to support potential major footballing events in the future, as they have a demonstrated return on investment and have the ability to engage both an Australian and global community like no other sporting code can.
You can also read
