Australia bid hit by rival sports
The Australian bid for the 2018 World Cup has been severely hit after rival codes refused to agree to halt their league season during the period that the tournament would be scheduled for.
Fifa regulations state that World Cup venues cannot run rival competitions at the same time as the finals. Also, the competition is required to have 12 active stadiums whilst Australia would have problems with codes such as the NRL and MCG fulfilling fixtures at key venues.
The bid team are set to apply for special exemption from FIFA to allow Rugby union and league along with Australian Rules football to be allowed to continue their season if their campaign is successful.
Australian Rugby league chief executive David Gallop, said: “We’re not trying to stop the World Cup bid but we are certainly concerned about the impact that it will have on our season, our fans and the financial position of our clubs. I’ll be meeting with the FFA (Football Federation of Australia) later this week and hopefully they can shed some light on what has really been proposed. We just can’t disappear off the face of the Earth.”
Ben Buckley, FFA chief executive, said: “I think all the other codes understand there are substantial benefits to Australia as a nation to host the World Cup and I am pretty confident we will work through those issues and come to an agreement. We will discuss with Fifa the possibility of continuing the competitions and we would expect that there are precedents that would say that those competitions can continue to occur during the World Cup.”
Whatever happens, the news is good for England as another of their major rivals for the rights to the 2018 tournament has organisational problems on their hands!
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In Australia the AFL, and NRL are by far the major football codes, and are run in our winter.
A soccer world cup would be held during this time, and as such disrupt these seasons. Soccer has been forced to play their season in the summer here due to low public support when played in winter.
The FFA have been extremely arrogant in their negotiations with the AFL (Australain Football League), and NRL (National Rugby League) by not keeping them in the loop about proceedings.
One of major crisises with the bid is the proposed use of both the MCG and Etihad Stadium. These stadiums both in Melbourne are used by the AFL, and both have been primarily built with money earned by playing AFL games. The MCG would not be half the capacity it is now without the AFL playing matches there. The AFL has the third highest average attendances of any sporting competition around the world (higher than EPL), and the FFA expects the AFL to shut down for at least 4 weeks.
Good luck with your bid, hopefully you win it!!
An Australian
Don’t worry about all this (or actually England, you should be worried)! Australia is the sporting capital of the world and run sporting events better than anyone else. This will be proven when we host the most successful World Cup yet WHILE other sports continue to run. Look at Englands problems…..hooliganism, terrorism, terrible weather, not to mention a national team full of overpaid chumps.
-yawn- typical media scaremongering. Of course the other codes are going to whinge, the AFL is extremely arrogant and can’t stand the thought of something else rising up to threaten it. But it will all come down to money and they’d love their share of what a world cup would bring. It is pathetic to suggest that the bid will fail because of this, the FFA will come up with a financial solution to pacify the other codes (not that they deserve any) and there is plenty of time to work it out. Australia would be able to put on an amazing world cup and although its in a bad time zone for Europe, it’s perfect for Asia. The Sydney Olympics would be nothing compared to what we can bring for the world’s greatest sporting event. Don’t believe that there isn’t a lot of public support here because it couldn’t be further from the truth – you have the true fanatics plus the fact that sport in general is bred into nearly all of us. A world cup would be wonderfully received and celebrated. Be afraid England! Australia for 2018/2022!
England will hold it,we created football, We’re not worried.you should be.and yes England has problems but you get that all over the world,not just england
At least we can play football.