14 Apr ASEAN FOR 2030

Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi, a member of the powerful FIFA executive committee, is confident that the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) would be able to host a World Cup finals.

The idea of a joint bid by the 10-member ASEAN to host the 2030 World Cup finals came alive at a foreign ministers’ summit in Lombok, Indonesia in January. Malaysia was tasked to come up with a proposal and to submit a status report at the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia next month.

On Sunday, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) backed the idea of a joint bid.

Speaking to MediaCorp over the phone from London yesterday, Worawi said: “This is just an idea now, and we’re just collecting feedback. The process of bidding hasn’t even started … but I’m confident that in the next 20 years ASEAN will easily have the capability – in terms of infrastructure – to host the World Cup.”

But he cautioned: “I have no doubt that there will be a lot of development in this region in the years ahead … but it is eventually up to FIFA to award (the hosting rights).”

FIFA’s goals of using football as a unifying factor and spreading the game to as many countries as possible will be served by bringing a World Cup here.

But, besides infrastructure, the selection of a team, or teams, to represent the countries here could be extremely complicated. The first and only World Cup to see co-hosts was the 2002 edition held in Japan and Korea when both countries were granted automatic slots in the competition.

In a statement released on its website yesterday, the AFF said it “welcomes the initiative by the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) to consider hosting the 2030 World Cup in the region.”

An ASEAN delegation headed by Malaysia’s Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Dato’ Razali Ibrahim, presented a World Cup bid proposal to the AFF members for the first time on Sunday. The AFF will form a committee to study the proposal.

In the meantime, representatives from Malaysia and the ASEAN Secretariat are in the midst of preparing a status report on the proposal for the forthcoming ASEAN Summit in Jakarta from May 7 to 8.

The next World Cup finals will be held in Brazil in 2014, followed by Russia in 2018 and Qatar four years later. Argentina and Uruguay have expressed an interest in a joint bid for the 2026 finals, and the earliest the tournament could return to Asia will be in 2030.

The benefits of hosting a World Cup are obvious, says Worawi. “Even before the tournament kicks off, along the way as we prepare for the event, we will see a lot of football development in the region … But for now, it is still an idea,” he said.