OCA awaits Australia a signal for joining Asiad

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) does not close the door for Australia to compete in the Asian Games in future, and would like to discuss the issue if the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) makes such a request, OCA vice president Manuel Silverio told Xinhua here on Sunday.

"It's possible for Australia to take part in the Asian Games in future," said Silverio.

"It was mentioned by some of us but had yet to be discussed officially in OCA.

"I think the requirement from AOC is the key to make this issue raised to the agenda," added Silverio.

However, Australia seemed not willing to make the first step as Craig Phillips, the AOC secretary-general, told Xinhua by e-mail that Australia would like to be invited first.

"We would certainly consider the invitation in a positive manner," said Phillips.

"But we would need to confer with our member sports. Some are very keen for more top level competition in Asia, others are not so keen because of links with Oceania."

Australia did compete in the East Asian Games in Osaka, Japan, in 2001 with a 440-strong team.

"The AOC believes we can improve in sports like gymnastics, judo, wrestling and taekwondo by competing against the best in Asia," added Phillips.

AOC is part of Oceania, but the Australian football federation is now a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which is in charge of the Asiad soccer tournament.

Australia broke ranks earlier this year with Oceania to join the AFC. About half a dozen other Australian sports governing bodies have also split with Oceania and joined Pan-Pacific federations.

Before setting up a channel to discuss, there were some different voices from the OCA as vice president Timothy Fok had a frigid manner to the issue.

"In the long term, it may be possible for Australia to attend the Asian Games, but it has not been listed into the OCA agenda," Fok said.

"At present, the priority of OCA is to develop the Asian sports level. Now some East Asian countries are advanced and we are glad to see the west Asia is catching up rapidly, but some regions of Asia are still in a backward state.

"Australia is a sports powerhouse of Oceania. I think it might not be a good sign for those Asian undeveloped countries and regions to see the coming of Australia," added Fok.

Australia stole the limelight of the Asian teams as it was voted Asian Team of the Year after upstaging the rest of Asia by making the knockout stage of the 2006 World Cup soccer finals in Germany.

Source: Xinhua