Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sydney: AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 organisers have praised fans for embracing Asia’s biggest football tournament after attendances passed the 250,000 mark just eight days into the group stage.
On Friday, more than 33,000 fans turned out for games in Brisbane and Melbourne, bringing the total crowd for the first 16 games to 259,070.
According to AFC General Secretary, Dato’ Alex Soosay, the number of spectators is a cause for excitement for Asian football, and he believes that the numbers will only grow as the tournament progresses.
“We truly have a great tournament on our hands. The passion and enthusiasm in each of the matches played so far both on and off the pitch has been remarkable.
“Great credit must be given to the Australian Local Organising Committee who has promoted the event wonderfully with activities and initiatives aimed at raising the interest of fans – like the AFC Asian Cup Adopt a Team programme which encourages Aussies to support a second team.
“It is amazing that a match between Qatar and Iran in Australia could amass more than 22,000 supporters, while the match between Japan and Iraq had 22,941 people in the stadium.
"The travelling fans have been a joy to watch, as they not only support their team, but they also bring a touch of culture and uniqueness to the game,” he added.
“I take my hat off to the fans. They are helping us achieve our dream of staging a tournament that will never be forgotten,” said Michael Brown, CEO of the Local Organising Committee.
“We have spent years preparing what we hoped would be a huge, multicultural celebration of football, and the fans are making that a reality.
“It’s not just the numbers – though they are impressive. It’s the passion and colour fans from all competing nations are bringing.
“The first Asian Cup on Australian soil is enjoying tremendous support at all five venues – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle.
“We are half-way through the tournament – 16 matches out of 32. But the big ones are still to come – the knockout matches of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final itself – so we feel we are well on track to crack our target of half a million spectators.
“There are some games coming up where we expect very big crowds and people who want to attend quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final should buy their tickets now to avoid disappointment.”
The biggest crowd so far has been 50,276 at Sydney’s Stadium Australia for the host nation’s match against Oman.
Australia’s opening match against Kuwait at the smaller Melbourne Rectangular Stadium was a sell-out with an attendance of 25,231.
Another Socceroos sell-out is expected on Saturday in Brisbane with only a few seats left for the game against Korea Republic.
Asia’s top-ranked team Iran have enjoyed superb support, drawing 17,712 against Bahrain in Melbourne and 22,672 against Qatar in Sydney.
Defending champions Japan attracted over 17,000 against Palestine in Newcastle and another bumper gate of almost 23,000 against 2007 champions Iraq in Brisbane on Friday night.
The average crowd for the group stage matches to date is 16,192.
Photo: WSG