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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-30 Daily Xml
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SOCCER

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (15:46): Next Wednesday, Adelaide United will play in Osaka, Japan, in the first leg of the Asian Champions League final before returning for the decisive second match in Adelaide on 12 November. Asia is home to more than 4 billion people and more than 60 per cent of the world's population. The Asian Football Confederation has 46 members, and it invited its top 14 nations to enter their best clubs in the 2008 Champions League. That competition began in March, with 29 teams, and now only Adelaide United and Gamba Osaka remain.

United's achievement is even more impressive, given how wealthy some of those 29 clubs are. Australia's A League is restricted to a salary cap of $1.9 million a year for its squads. Clubs from Japan's J League and South Korea's K League do not have salary caps and are able to spend more money on players. Adelaide United has already eliminated a J League club by defeating the Kashima Antlers in the Champion's League quarter-finals. The semi-final victory over Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan was, arguably, even more impressive.

Bunyodkor's team included Rivaldo, a former FIFA World Player of the Year. Rivaldo has a World Cup winner's medal from 2002, and he represented Brazil 86 times. Bunyodkor is able to pay more than €5 million per year to Rivaldo, and that is more than five times the amount Adelaide United pays its entire squad.

As well as reaching the Champions League Final, Adelaide United has won a place in the FIFA Club World Cup, which will be played in December. This is an exclusive seven-team tournament for the continental club champions around the world. Because the Club World Cup is held in Japan and the champion of Japan is guaranteed a place, Asia will also be represented by the highest placed non Japanese team in the Asian Champions League, and that team will be Adelaide United, irrespective of the result of the final against Gamba Osaka. The schedule of matches for the FIFA Club World Cup is already known. If Adelaide United wins at the quarter-final stage of the tournament, it will play Manchester United in the semi-final.

Like most members, I am a passionate supporter of Australian Rules Football as well as soccer, but I urge soccer non-believers to at least recognise that soccer's global appeal creates possibilities that are well beyond the reach of Aussie Rules. On 12 November, the champion club of Asia will be crowned in Adelaide, and yet we cannot host an AFL grand final; not because we do not have a big enough stadium, but because the AFL will not allow its grand final to be held anywhere but the MCG.

The subject of sporting stadia seems to have attracted some discussion recently, and it would be remiss of me not to address it. In all the calls for the 12 November final to be moved to a larger venue, a rather important detail has been missed. The Asian Football Confederation's regulations for the Champions League prevent Adelaide United from playing the home leg of the final at a different venue from the one the club used throughout the competition. Article 12(i) of the regulations for the AFC Champions League 2008 states:

Throughout the competition a club must play all its home matches in the competition at one and the same stadium unless forced to do so otherwise because of circumstances beyond its control.

In other words, you can play the final at AAMI Stadium just as long as you have played all of your other Champions League matches there as well.

Adelaide United's first home match in this year's Champions League was against China's Changchun Yatai in March. The official crowd figure that night was 10,510. Indeed, Hindmarsh has been sold out only three times this year: for the Champions League quarter-final against Kashima Antlers; the semi against Bunyodkor; and the upcoming final against Gamba Osaka. It has not been sold out for any A League matches in 2008.

Many of the teams that have competed in this year's Champions League also play in small stadia. Adelaide United's recent match in Tashkent was played in front of 17,000 people; Bunyodkor's stadium has the same capacity as Hindmarsh; and Gamba Osaka's home ground, which will host the first leg of the final, has a capacity of 21,000.

It is extremely sad that so many fans will miss out on 12 November, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what stadia are and are not available in Adelaide: it is simply a result of the rules of the competition. Unfortunately, Adelaide United will not be competing in the 2009 Champions League even if it wins the final, unless the Asian Football Confederation changes its entry criteria. There is no place in next year's Champions League for the 2008 winner, and Australia will be represented by the Central Coast Mariners and the Newcastle Jets. Even if United competed in the 2009 Asian Champions League and reached the final again, it would not host it.

From next year, the Champions League final will be a single match played at a neutral venue. Of course, we can, and should, debate the future of our sporting venues, but there is no need for a new one at this time. As Australia is bidding to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, I simply urge those responsible for any future upgrades of AAMI Stadium, and perhaps Adelaide Oval, to ensure that they have a full understanding of FIFA's guidelines for World Cup stadia. Stadia capacity is important, but it is not the be all and end all, and there are many other important criteria. Several of the stadia used in the World Cup in Germany two years ago had capacities of less than 50,000. The Frankenstadion in Nuremberg held just 41,000 spectators.

In closing, I would like to congratulate everyone involved with Adelaide United for what they have achieved: the club's owner, Nick Bianco; the manager Aurelio Vidmar; all the coaching and training staff; Sam Ciccarello—yes, we are related—Michael Petrillo; and the players, in particular, who have shown skill, determination and resilience in combining their Asian Championships League campaign with the regular A-League season. I wish them well in both the final and the FIFA World Cup.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think we all wish them well.

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