Australia hopes Asia move will lure players home

Australian officials hope their bold plan to ditch the Oceania region and join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will convince the country's best players to quit Europe and return home.

Most of Australia's top internationals make their living in Europe, where the wages are much higher and there are more opportunities.

However, the reluctance of many European teams to release Australian players for international fixtures has resulted in a series of bitter rows between club and country.

Football Australia chairman Frank Lowy believes the problem could be solved when his nation joins Asia because the move would generate significant new income and allow local clubs to raise their player salaries.

"I know the marketing side is very exciting," Lowy told a news conference in Sydney.

"If we have national competition and international competition where we can compensate the players more than before, we'll have many players coming back to Australia.

"This is the biggest opportunity for the players to come home and stay home."

Australia's planned switch to Asia has been enthusiastically welcomed by AFC officials, who expect the move will add a new dimension to the region's profile.

"If it was left to our wishes, we would like it to have happened yesterday," AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam told the news conference.

"But there are other organisations involved. There are legal issues which are supposed to be resolved before Australia can fully participate in Asia's competitions."

Australia will present their case to Oceania next month, seeking permission to leave the weak region, before world soccer's governing body FIFA considers their application in June.

If FIFA ratifies the proposal as expected, Australia could be eligible to play Asian Cup qualifiers next year.

Farina investigated

Meanwhile, Australia soccer coach Frank Farina is being investigated by police and the sport's national body over an alleged assault following his team's 2-1 win against Iraq on Saturday.

A local television journalist with the SBS network filed a complaint against Farina following an incident in the players' tunnel immediately after the friendly match.

Farina told another television network yesterday that he had clashed with the reporter but had done nothing wrong. He said he had filed his own complaint with Football Australia.