ASEAN and Australia

An interesting discussion was raised on FourFourTwo Australia's forums some weeks ago. It centred around Australia's status within the ASEAN Football Federation and Australia's possible participation in any future AFF Suzuki Cups. My understanding was that Australia was not a full member of the AFF and therefore is not entitled to participate in the AFF Suzuki Cup. Australia's youth teams, however, participate in all AFF youth tournaments as an invited nation. It is an interesting predicament which Australian football sits within, and for clarification I decided to contact the AFF themselves to see what they had to say. The response was thus:

"Hi there, just to clarify that Australia is not part of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) because the AFF was borne out of the political, social and economic partnerships between countries from South East Asian, which is ASEAN. But Australia is part of Asean in terms of qualification matches of the AFC. And as far as competitions organised by AFF, Australia is an invited team. I hope that it clarifies things. Thank you."

The response neglected to mention whether Australia has any place in future AFF Suzuki Cups however was largely predictable in content. Federations such as the AFF and EAFF are unique to Asia, reflecting the sheer size of the continent and continuing continental power politics.

Unlike most, if not all other nations in the AFC, Australia does not officially belong to a federation under the AFC such as the AFF or the EAFF. Australia does not benefit from the extra matches played within these federation tournaments. However, it can be argued that they are largely irrelevant for nations such as Japan and China and Australia would find it difficult to secure the release of players for federation tournaments. For the AFF, at least its tournament serves as a development platform and offers much needed matches to developing football nations such as Laos and the Philippines.

It is unlikely that we will see senior Australian teams participating in any AFF tournaments soon, however the participation of Australian youth teams in AFF tournaments can only benefit our integration into the region. Whether or not Australia can one day become a fully-fledged member of the AFF may have more to do with the fostering of political, social, and economic partnerships to which the AFF employee alluded.

Will Australia ever be seen as belonging to Asia in more than a footballing sense?