Full Time Singapore V Australia

Singapore v Australia Friendly. Singapore National Stadium.

A tale of two halves.

During the first 45 minutes, Australia appeared to struggle in the heat creating several opportunities for Singapore. With a number of shots on target (including two hitting the goal post), Singapore could have taken the early lead and placed Australia under pressure.

This proved not to be the case and both team were scoreless going into the half time break.

Australia came out and dominated the second half proving why they are one of the favourites to win the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

Two goals to Mark Viduka and one to Harry Kewell resulted in a 3:0 win to the visitors.

Asian Football Central
http://asianfc.com

Half Time Singapore V Australia

Friendly at Singapore National Stadium.

Australia 0 : Singapore 0

Web Poll Has Australia To Win

asian cup


According to the Asian Football Central web poll, Australia is favourite to win the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

With over 1000 votes recorded, Australia has received 40% with IR Iran second on 35%. The poll will continue running right through the tournament.

The full results so far:
Australia 40%
IR Iran 35%
Japan 7%
Korea Republic 4%
Saudi Arabia 2%
China PR 2%
Other 10%

Asian Football Central
http://asianfc.com

AFC Asian Cup Fever Grows

With a little over a week until the start of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, the excitement is building across Asia.

Festivals and competitions in the four host nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand) have added to the expectation with highlights including final warm up matches for the competing teams, the naming of the official song, media and fan competitions, opportunities to meet the players and mini tournaments.

With the debut of the AFC's newest member Australia, along with the traditional powerhouses of Japan, Saudi Arabia, Korea Republic and IR Iran, this is shaping up to be the greatest AFC Asian Cup ever.

Thousands of fans are expected to arrive in the host nations over the coming week having travelled from every corner of the continent.

India Withdraws 2011 Bid

India has officially withdrwn it's bid to host the 2011 version of the AFC Asian Cup.

With IR Iran yet to submit it's formal bid documentation, Qatar is hotting up as the favourrite to host the event.

All India Football Federation (AIFF) General Secretary Alberto Colaco told news agencies that they would not be able to meet the huge and stringent infrastructural requirements.

“We are not making a formal bid,” Colaco told the media. “We need two international standard stadiums in each of the cities where matches will be played. It is very tough."

AFC will announce the hosts of the 2011 edition in Jakarta on July 29 following the AFC Executive Committee meeting on the sidelines of the AFC Asian Cup 2007™ final at the Gelora Bungkarno Stadium later in the evening.

Qatar Bids for 2011

asian cup

Qatar has officially submitted it's bid to host the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, meeting the deadline with two days to spare.

The two other nations bidding to host the tournament (India and Iran) have yet to submit the required documentation meaning Qatar is now in a strong position to be awarded the hosting rights.

Qatar Football Association General Secretary Saud Al Mohannadi and Technical Director Dr. Athanasios Batsilas handed over the bid documents to AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam at the AFC headquarters.

“We are happy to be the first of the three contenders to submit our documents. We worked hard along with the relevant ministries to complete the requirements,” Al Mohannadi said.

“We successfully hosted the Asian Games in December last year which shows our abilities as a host of major international events. We hope that AFC Executive Committee will be satisfied with our bid and give us a chance to host the biggest Asian football event in four year’s time.”

The current rotational policy of the AFC in granting hosting rights will end following West Asia's turn in 2011. This leaves the door open for the AFC's newest member association (Football Federation Australia) to bid for 2015.

Asian Football Central

Asian Australian Football Championships

australian football

Aussies (and others) travelling to Bangkok for the AFC Asian Cup in July will be able to take a break from the 'round ball' game and see some great Australian Rules football at the 2007 Asian Australian Football Championships.

Ten teams from China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Indonesia (two teams – Bali and Jakarta) Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and of course Thailand will compete for the coveted Asian Australian Rules Football Championship at the Patana International School on Saturday July 14.

Thailand Tigers Organising Committee Chairman, Stephen Richards, said logistics planning for the event commenced in January and the response to the annual tournament has been so over whelming, organisers are claiming the international tournament may be the largest of its kind outside Australia.

“We are saying this will be Asia’s largest Australian football tournament ever because we know it is, but a lot of the teams involved think this might be the biggest international carnival outside Australia, which would make this event the biggest of its kind in the world,” Richards said.

“They have some pretty competitive leagues around the world particularly in Europe and North America, but we will have ten teams from different countries all together playing on the one day and through the Australian footy international grapevine we have not been able to come up with an event that will outmatch this in terms of the number of teams playing.”

The tournament kicks off at 08:30 (local time) with the Grand Final commencing at 16:10. Refreshments will be available and there will be a post match function featuring music and award presentations.

More information about the tournament and the clubs competing can be found on the Thailand Tigers website at: http://www.thailand-tigers.com/

Asian Football Forum Launched

football forum

Asian Football Central is pleased to announce the launch of it's new football forum.

The forum will be dedicated entirely to Asian Football with threads on all major Asian football tournaments as well as Asian qualifying matches for oither tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. A seperate thread has been created to discuss each of the four preliminary groups of the AFC Asian Cup.

The Asian Football Central football forum can be found at http://forum.asianfc.com/ or by clicking on the link at http://asianfc.com/.

Football Media Sharing Site Launched

football

A new Football site has been created at PikSpot.com for all Football enthusiasts.

The site allows members to post and share their own football media including video, podcasts, photos and news items.

Whilst the site has been created by Asian Football Central, it will be a community project with anyone able to post; AsianFC.com will not make any income from it. The new community can be found at http://football.pikspot.com/mainpage.php.

As it is still being developed, the site is very light on contect at this stage. Feel free to take a look and add your own material!

Asian Football Central

Australian Team Named for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup

socceroos

FFA Media Release
Friday 8 June 2007

Football Federation Australia today named the 23-man squad that will represent Australia at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

"Australia was united as never before in their support of the Qantas Socceroos at the World Cup last year and the AFC Asian Cup will provide another opportunity for the country to get behind their national football team at a major event on the world stage," said FFA CEO Mr. Ben Buckley.

"It's an honour for us to be playing in such an historic event and we will continue to give the team all the support they need to achieve success."

National Coach Graham Arnold said selecting the final 23 players had been a difficult task.

"I am very pleased with the squad and they will represent Australia with a lot of pride," said Mr. Arnold. "Selecting squads for tournaments are never easy. There will always be disappointed players but if there weren’t then we would have a problem."

"I have worked closely with the players and their clubs to manage the difficult balance between full time jobs in the clubs, for whom July is an exceptionally important time, and the players absolute desire and commitment to play for Australia in a tournament where although their is no financial reward as there was at the World Cup, their is the real possibility of some silverware."

"Since I was given the opportunity to coach the Qantas Socceroos I have worked hard to build depth with a view to the Asian Cup and also the 2010 World Cup qualifiers."

"This squad is reflective of the need to continue to build depth but we also want to win the tournament. We want to be the pride of Asia."

Australia's first game will be in Thailand on July 8th against Oman.

The players named are: John Aloisi (Alaves, Spain), Michael Beauchamp (Nuremberg, Germany), Mark Bresciano (Palermo, Italy), Tim Cahill (Everton, England), Nick Carle (Newcastle Jets, Australia), David Carney (Sydney FC, Australia), Jason Culina (PSV Eindhoven, Holland), Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers, England), Vincenzo Grella (Parma, Italy), Brett Holman (NEC Nijmegen, Holland), Brad Jones (Middlesbrough, England), Harry Kewell (Liverpool, England), Patrick Kisnorbo (Leicester City, England), Mark Milligan (Sydney FC, Australia), Lucas Neill (West Ham, England), Michael Petkovic (Sivasspor, Turkey), Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough, England), Mile Sterjovski (Basel, Switzerland), Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory, Australia), Michael Thwaite (Wisla Krakow, Poland), Carl Valeri (US Grosseto, Italy), Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough, England), Luke Wilkshire (Twente, Holland)

AFC Asian Cup 2007™ Fan Zone Launched

Asian Football Confederation Press Release

KUALA LUMPUR: A fully-paid round-trip and tickets for the AFC Asian Cup 2007™ final in Jakarta, Nike merchandise as well as exclusive Z240 Samsung mobile phones are up for grabs in two exciting AFC Asian Cup 2007™ online contests launched today on the AFC Asian Cup 2007TM Fan Zone.

In the ‘Ultimate Fan Quiz’ contest, all fans have to do is test their knowledge of Asian football and answer a set of 10 questions based on Asia’s premier footballing event.

In the ‘Samsung Fans’ Man of the Match’, football lovers get a chance to vote for their favourite player or the player they think has excelled in a particular match. There will be winners every match day. Voting gets underway just before each match and fans can vote as many times as they want up to 12 hours after the end of the game.

Simply login and register to www.afcasiancup.com or www.the-afc.com. and get started with these exciting contests!

Phase 2 AFC Asian Cup Ticket Sales

asian cup
KUALA LUMPUR: The second phase of AFC Asian Cup 2007™ ticket sales gets underway today in all the four venues, exactly one month prior to the July 7, 2007, kickoff in Bangkok.

Tickets will be available on a first-come-first-served basis from today at select kiosks in key locations in the four host countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The online sale of tickets started on April 24, 2007, and to date has received an excellent response. Fans can continue ordering tickets online via www.the-afc.com and www.afcasiancup.com.

"The second phase of ticket sales signals a decisive phase in the build-up to Asia's premier national team competition," said Clare Kenny Tipton, Assistant General Secretary and Director of Marketing and Communications.

"The online sale of tickets last month was a milestone development in promoting the game to fans in Asia and worldwide and we expect a robust sale of tickets through the kiosks."

The four local ticketing agents are:

Indonesia - Axcess Ticketing Sdn. Bhd.
Malaysia - Tickets2u
Thailand - Thai Ticket Master
Vietnam - Ale (Vietnam Football Development)

Fans are advised to note that no other ticketing agencies, other than the four appointed, are authorised to sell AFC Asian Cup 2007™ tickets and AFC is not bound to honour in any manner tickets purchased by anyone through unofficial and unauthorized vendors.

Asian Football Confederation Press Release

Asian Football Central

Asian Football Central Accreditation Approved

asian cup
Asian Football Central is proud to announce that it has been granted media accreditation for the upcoming 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

All of the AFC Asian Cup results will be available on Asian Football Central along with special coverage of the following games:

1. THAILAND vs. IRAQ on 07-07-2007
2. AUSTRALIA vs. OMAN on 08-07-2007
3. OMAN vs. THAILAND on 12-07-2007
4. IRAQ vs. AUSTRALIA on 13-07-2007
5. THAILAND vs. AUSTRALIA on 16-07-2007

Blatter named FIFA President until 2011

Those of the 207 FIFA member associations present who were eligible to vote have returned FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter for a third term of office until 2011 with a standing ovation. A boy then handed him a globe as a symbol of FIFA's new slogan "For the Game. For the World."
Blatter thanked the delegates for placing their trust in him and appealed for unity. "I am delighted to accept the 57th FIFA Congress's mandate to serve as president during the 2007-2011 period. I am very happy, and together we will oversee four years of continued strength for football," he said.

Upon reaching item 15 on the congress agenda, namely the election of the FIFA President, Blatter handed the floor to Senior Vice-President Julio Grondona (Argentina) and left the auditorium. Mr Grondona then requested the delegates on behalf of the Executive Committee to re-elect the president by acclamation. Applauded by the delegates and guests, the FIFA President was then invited back to the stage and was returned to office for another four years with a standing ovation.

Joseph S. Blatter is only the eighth president in the 103-year history of world football's governing body. He was first appointed to the helm of FIFA in Paris on 8 June 1998. Four years later in Seoul on 29 May 2002, the associations confirmed his position. The extraordinary Congress in Doha in 2003 voted to prolong that mandate from four to five years so that the presidential election would take place in the year after the termination of the four-year financial period and thus not affect the FIFA World Cup™.

Press release from FIFA.com

Asian Football Central

fifa

Uruguay 2 Australia 1

soccer



Sydney 02/06/07. The Qantas Socceroos have suffered a 2-1 loss to Uruguay in an international friendly at Sydney’s Telstra Stadium.

This was the first time the two countries have met since their World Cup qualifyiers in November 2005 when Australia won in a penalty shootout and qualified for Germany 2006.

A crowd of just over 60,000 witnessed Australia take an early lead with a goal in the 6th minute from Mile Sterjovski however a goal to Diego Forlan in the 40th minute meant scores were tied at 1-1 going in to the half time break.

A crucial error by the Australian goal keeper Brad Jones in the 77th minute saw Uruguay take the lead. What appeared to be a simple cross was dropped by the keeper and an easy goal to Alvaro Recoba resulted giving Uruguay victory. This was Australia's first loss on home soil since playing Turkey in Melbourne in May 2004.

Australia's next (and final) match prior to the 2007 AFC Asian Cup will be against Singapore (in Singapore) on June 30.

Asian Football Central