by David Munday

The stakes are high for 2015’s edition of the Asian Cup; not just for the title contenders but the federation as a whole. In the decade or so since the Japan/South Korea World Cup we were being led to believe that Asian football was on a steep curve of improvement – but if Brazil’s edition of the tournament told us anything it’s that the federation’s growth has completely flat-lined.

Not one AFC side registered a win in Brazil and Australia, Iran, South Korea and Japan, despite all battling admirably, were out-shined by CONCACAF underdogs Costa Rica and USA. And let’s not beat about the bush, the fiasco surrounding Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup has done nothing but cast further doubt over the AFC’s ability to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.

And unfortunately, the organisers of the 2015 Asian Cup have hardly made it easy for the continent to turn any heads as viewing figures both sides of television screens will be low.

Competition with Europe’s top leagues and the African Cup of Nations will put the Asian Cup at the bottom of any football fans to-watch list especially with many fans in Asian countries more interested in following La Liga than the fortunes of their own nations.

But another burning issue is the case of the Australian public who may not be all that interested in purchasing a ticket for Palestine’s Group D clash with Iraq. The idea of Australia hosting the tournament has been a controversial one anyway as this will be the first time the event will not actually take place in Asia.

Accordingly you would expect home supporters to be interested only in the fortunes of the Socceroos and the fans of other participants opting against travelling to another continent to see their team compete for an Asian title.

Nothing looks worse for a major tournament than stadia filled to the brim with empty seats – but it looks like that’s what we should expect in Australia.

But then again we’ve heard all of these problems before in the build up to Brazil – a tournament which proved that if the quality of the football is good enough everybody will quickly forget any off-the-field problems.

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