A billion viewers, illegal betting, and global jihadism at the 2015 Asian Cup
Beijing (AsiaNews) - The 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, which began on 9 January in Australia, is now in the knockout stages, with quarterfinals scheduled to start on Thursday.
South Korea, China, Iran and Japan got into to second round by winning their respective group.
Set to end on 31 January with the final match in Sydney, the 16th edition of the Asian Cup is also set to break all records in terms of spectators from the host country and the continent.
Over 550,000 fans are expected at the 32 games over three weeks, which will break the Asian Cup record, but it is the overseas attention that has allowed the event to reach a truly global scope.
Asian Cup organisers expect the tournament to be the sporting event of the year in Australia and in Asia, exceeding global TV figures for events such as the Australian Open tennis (which opened yesterday) and the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Across Asia, the Asian Cup is increasingly popular in countries like India and Thailand even though their national team failed to qualify for the final round.
Indonesia too failed to qualified, but here too, the game is widely followed with record number of viewers watching matches broadcast on TV.
Indonesians are so football mad that they are the third highest users of the Asian Football Confederation's YouTube channel.
Similarly, the popularity of the Asian Cup is up in the Middle East with more and more websites dedicated to the event, allowing fans and internet users to meet, comment and discuss the games.
However, in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and an Islamic State (IS) stronghold, 13 teenagers lost their life because of their love for football.
On 12 January, IS executed them after they were caught watching the Asian Cup football match between Iraq and Jordan.
After rounding up the kids, IS jihadists publicly executed them for allegedly violating Islamic law (Sharia), leaving their bodies in the open as warning to others.
In Iran, Iranian footballers were warned that they would be violating Islamic precepts and could be punished if they were photographed or had "selfie" taken with female fans at the Asian Cup.
The warning came after pictures of footballers with female fans began circulating last week on social media.
In Iran, women are not allowed to attend men's sporting events. Still, the presence of the Iranian team at AFC Asian Cup has attracted more and more spectators, both men and women.
For Palestine, this will be the first time at the AFC Asian Cup after it beat the Philippines for a slot. The Palestinians even scored the first goal of the qualifying round against Jordan.
On the sidelines of the tournament, billions of dollars are expected to change hands in betting. Host country Australia is the odds on favourite for victory at 3.5 to 1, followed by defending champion and four-time winner Japan.
The last of the big teams is South Korea, Asia's foremost team for a while. So far, it has won the cup twice, with three second and four third places and a long history in the competition. It is currently ranked 7th.
Until recently, China has failed to impose itself in football as it has done in other sports; however, this time it has an outside chance.
Thus, Chinese authorities have recently added football in the school curriculum, investing billions of yuan to develop the sport. Odds on the Chinese team are 23 to 1.
Meanwhile, across Asia, governments and Football authorities are closely monitor illegal betting, especially in the case of smaller teams with lower-paid players, who are considered more vulnerable to match-fixers.
Indeed, match-fixing, along with doping, is one of the biggest threats to the integrity of football as well as other sports in Asia.
In view of revelations made on the eve of the World Football Cup in Brazil, Asia already holds the title of "world champion" because of its multi-billion dollar illegal betting industry.
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13/06/2006
