More than a game – The star power of the Socceroos brings marketing opportunities to Australian business in Japan

Tomorrow night, the Socceroos (Australia’s national football team) play Japan in the final round of Asian Confederation qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The socceroos captured the hearts and minds of Australians around the nation (and in Tokyo from my vantage point!) in a stirring penalty shootout to reach the 2006 version of the tournament in Germany, and since then have made significant inroads into a country which long viewed football as a sport for sheilas, wogs and poofters.

Apart from the match tomorrow (which in reality is a dead rubber – with both teams already assured of qualification), what does any of this have to do with Japan? As Australia’s largest trading partner, the world game and the socceroos are creating new opportunities for stronger business and diplomatic ties in the land of the rising sun.

The socceroos are now one of sporting Australia’s most recognized and prized marketing assets. The team’s popularity shows no signs of abating either:  A recent qualifier against far-flung Uzbekistan in April smashed pay television ratings – drawing the biggest audience ever for a  subscription TV program. This sort of audience pull against this ranking of opponent, with all due respect to Uzbekistan, was unimaginable only a few years earlier, and the popularity of the team is now playing a crucial role in building community momentum for a tilt at hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

Up until Australia’s entry into the Asian Football Confederation a few years earlier, major sporting events between Australia and Asian nations were few and far between. Now, the socceroos meet Japan with such regularity that a fierce rivalry is brewing between these proud footballing nations.

Far from handwringing, the Football Federation of Australia and Austrade views the growing rivalry as an opportunity to forge even better business and diplomatic connections with Japan. Following a format made successful in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics, Austrade and the FFA organised business meetings between Australian and Japanese companies in February 2009 when the two teams last faced off in a World Cup Qualifier in Yokohama. This comes off successful trade matching events when the Socceroos played in the Middle East in 2008, and no doubt the FFA will be organising similar events in Melbourne for tomorrow night as part of their bigger-picture strategy to engage Asia for the World Cup.

These business matching exchanges, I believe, are only the cherry on top of a very big chocolate cake. Great rivalries bring in great crowds and media coverage: The whole of Australia seems to be talking when Australia play the English for the Ashes series in cricket, much in the same way that fierce baseball rivalries between Osaka’s Hanshin Tigers and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants incites chest-beating between these two cities.

As alluded to by Austrade’s Chief Economist (and socceroo fan) Tim Harcourt, great potential lies in forging a tradition of rivalry between Australia and Japan. This is by no means an easy feat to achieve, but tomorrow’s match is one in which both teams are loath to lose – irrespective of the so-called ‘dead rubber status’ of this game.

In my view, the Football Federation of Australia and the Japan Football Association would do well to sit down together and come up with an annual series of matches between the two sides. One suggestion I have would be for an Australia-Japan Friendship Series: Australia would host the Japanese on Australia Day (January 26), before the Japanese reciprocate by hosting Australia for the away leg on Japan’s National Foundation Day (February 11).

Aside from being a great marketing opportunity, the matches would be a great way of fostering business and diplomatic relations between the two countries. From a sports fan’s perspective, the two teams would endure firstly Australia’s summer before Japan’s winter – which would make for interesting conditions. Not to mention that no sporting traditions currently exist on either of these days.

The biggest problem is the availability of senior players, but again this could serve as an opportunity for Australia’s and Japan’s U20 or Olympic teams to play instead – similar to a recent agreement between Turkey and Australia.

See you at tomorrow’s game : )