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Tim Harcourt*
Chief Economist
Australian Trade Commission
Sydney
www.austrade.gov.au/economistscorner
There’s no doubt about it, sport and business do mix. We saw it at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, at Athens in 2004 and at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006. And we expect a big wind-fall from Australia’s involvement in the Beijing Olympics in August (hands up if you also have a head of state who speaks Mandarin?). In fact, Sydney 2000 was the start of Austrade’s Business Club Australia (BCA) programme to leverage off sporting events through business networking functions. There have been over $1.7 billion of trade and investment deals created through key sporting events by the BCA, which shows the ‘power of schmooze’ works in practice as well as in theory. Many new Australian exporters – particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – have got their start by being introduced to a potential business partner at a major event.
However, whilst we’ve used the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, Horse racing, Rugby Union and Swimming to get business involved, there’s one sport that has amazing global potential for Australian exporters. It’s football – the world game. As FIFA were in town this week, Anthony Bubalo of the Lowy Institute for International policy organized a major seminar on how businesses can leverage major international sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympic Games. Bubalo’s view is simple: “Sport is now a major commercial activity, and with football being played by over 200 nations around the world, it has amazing potential for commercial engagement.” The Lowy seminar focussed not only on the commercial opportunities of major events like the FIFA World Cup but also on the social benefits. The conference was given an enlightened presentation by FIFA’s Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Mr. Federico Addeichi, who said that: “Kicking a round ball is not only fun but it can reduce AIDS, smoking, drug-taking and lift people’s self-esteem as well.” In short, spreading the word about football is FIFA’s own anti-poverty campaign.
The Lowy seminar came hot on the heels of their first conference on Football Diplomacy in 2005, which I also spoke at. That event took place with the excitement of Australia having joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This development – along with the Socceroos actually making the world cup in Germany 2006 – was significant not only for the development of Australian football but also for developing our trade ties through football. In researching my paper for the Lowy conferences, I found that Australia has more trade engagement in the nations that make up the Asian Football Confederation than anywhere else.
For instance, the research found that the top ranked AFC nations accounted for nearly of $76 billion in exports compared to just over $16 billion of the top ranked FIFA nations. Therefore, the world game is also the ideal sport to encourage trade links with given our proximity to Asia and the strong links between football support and Australia’s own exporter demographics. After all, exporting companies are more likely to be started by immigrants – think Bing Lee, Crazy Johns, and Frank Lowy himself – and therefore have close ties to the football community too. We wouldn’t have 50 per cent of our 44,000 strong exporting companies in Australia without the post-World War II immigration programme and we probably would not have had proper football infrastructure programme or supporters. As the late Johnny Warren alluded to in his the title of his famous biography ‘Sheila’s Wogs and Poofters’, the migrant community have been the backbone of football in Australia and according to Austrade research they have been the backbone of Australian exporter community too.
So what can we do to leverage the football-business connection more effectively?
First of all, there’s the FIFA World Cup qualifiers’ coming up. After we got wild about Harry Kewell’s winner in Brisbane, the Socceroos are off to play the return leg against Iraq in Dubai on June 7th followed by Qatar in Doha on June 14th (let’s pray that our World Cup hopes are not ‘Dead as a Doha’ by then!). As there’s over 2,000 Australian businesses exporting to 15,000 Aussies based in the United Arab Emirates alone so there’s plenty of potential for Australian business there.
In fact, to coincide with the Socceroos world cup qualifying campaign Austrade has organised some business breakfasts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Doha. According to Austrade Dubai’s James Wyndham:
"Austrade is keen to work with the FFA to use the platform of the football, and the presence of the Australian team, as a means to build awareness of Australian business capability and the profile of Australian business in the region."
Secondly, there’s South Africa 2010. Danny Jordaan, the CEO of South Africa 2010 World Cup Organising programme was at the Lowy Conference and was very keen to learn from Australia’s sports business expertise and use the World Cup in 2010 to help brand the ‘new’ South Africa. “We’ve got the wonderful legacy of Nelson Mandela, but we have to build the South Africa brand for the future so the world doesn’t forget us now the anti-apartheid struggle is over,” he said.
Thirdly, we could have a few symbolic cups to play for. In sports like Rugby and Cricket we have the Bledisloe Cup and the Ashes, so why not start a tradition for football matches with our Asian neighbours. Why not a Supachai-Fischer Cup when we play Thailand? The Cup could take the names of the former Thailand Prime Minister and World Trade Organisation Director-General, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi and former Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer. After all, Dr Supachai has been a long-standing supporter of Australia in international forums such as APEC and Tim Fischer is well known for his enthusiasm for Thai-Australian relations. And how about something with Japan, or China and Korea? Even outside Asia, why don’t we have a special football tournament with Turkey and New Zealand in honour of Anzac Day? Or a Les Murray Cup when we play Hungary?
Fourthly, another thing we could do is establish a Football Business Club Australia to help leverage our football links in terms of trade and investment in Asia and at the World Cup. Business Networking – or ‘the power of schmooze’ can have also sorts of possibilities on and off the field. For example, as a result of the Lowy Conference in 2005, Austrade helped Sydney FC with some business ties in Japan during their Asian Clubs championships and we can see the benefits of Adelaide United’s strong showing.
And lastly, we can’t forget the Matildas and the importance of women’s sport. As ABC Grandstand host and acclaimed sports journalist, Tracey Holmes pointed out at the Lowy Institute “You just can’t ignore 50 per cent of the population” and with the world beating performance of our women athletes in team and individual sports there is a lot of potential there too.
So good luck you mighty Socceroos and let’s hope that your journey through to the World Cup will help build stronger global economic ties in trade and investment in the game that is truly global.
*Tim Harcourt is chief economist at the Australian Trade Commission and the author of THE AIRPORT ECONOMIST
As well as being a Socceroos fanatic, he watches Sydney FC at home and supports Liverpool and Roma away.
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