Australia woke to a collective hangover on Thursday and the promise of more to come after their national soccer team clinched a spot in the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years.
Sunglasses were evident on most passers-by on Sydney's streets despite the cloudy day after a night of celebrating John Aliosi's perfectly placed spot kick, which took the Socceroos to a 4-2 victory on penalties over Uruguay late on Wednesday.
After struggling for years as an ethnically-divided, poorly managed, underfinanced cousin of the other "footballing" codes in Australia, Football Federation Australia (FFA) officials said they would capitalise on the Socceroos making the finals in Germany.
"I've never in sport experienced anything like it - it's a defining moment for the sport," FFA chief executive John O'Neill told a news conference on Thursday.
"There has been a lot of hard work done to achieve this.
"Frank [Lowy] and I have taken a lot of calculated risks in the last 18 months to achieve this trifecta of qualifying for the World Cup, to launch the A-league and from a more strategic perspective our integration into Asia.
"Those three achievements will secure the long-term viability of football in Australia and 2005 will go down as a year to remember."
FFA chairman Frank Lowy, who stepped in after the Australian government ordered the board of Soccer Australia to be sacked and replaced, said World Cup qualification would enhance what had been put in place for the development of the game.
"It's a huge boost for us to move forward but I don't think we can overestimate the win last night," said Lowy. "It was one game and we have hundreds of games ahead of us.
"There is a huge job to put football on the map in Australia ...and we are only just starting.
"The momentum will make the job a lot easier and we won't have to fight for the support any more.
"The fight is now behind us."
O'Neill said the country's media would now focus on the national team, and soccer in general, in 2006 which would make it easier to expand the sport.
"It's all about accelerating the momentum. Life would have gone on if we hadn't qualified," he said. "But the important thing is that we are not going to be out of the newspapers next year.
"We have struggled for column inches. ...the lead in for the World Cup is going to be fantastic.
"We have a participation level that is the envy of most sports - 1.2 million participants playing the game.
"We have the A-league now that looks the goods and now we have the national team performing at the highest level.
"We are a very serious player now in mainstream sport and I think our positioning has been enhanced.
"It's all in front of us."
© 2024 Rediff.com -