The Local Organising Committee for Asia’s showpiece event has been working in tandem with domestic clubs to leave a lasting human legacy.

LOC general manager, Alison Hill, said organisers were using the A-League as a springboard into many communities, raising the profile of both competitions.

“We’re keen to make long lasting connections and leave a legacy for football once the Asian Cup is over,” Hill said.

As many as 50 community ambassadors will be appointed with special attention focused on the five host cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle.

Under the plan the ambassadors will have a long-term role in football long after the three-week January tournament has ended.

“These are people who can help us to reach their communities, make them feel included and, when (tournament) tickets go on sale get them to come along to games,” Hill said.

“Once the Asian Cup is over, we’ll look at passing on our ambassadors to football for the future so that the game continues to benefit from the involvement of these people.

“Hopefully they can continue to be ambassadors for football whether that’s in the state federations, FFA or A-League clubs.”

The A-League has been identified as an ideal entry point for communities unfamiliar with the local product and daunted by a major sporting event.

“The Filipino community has already done some work in different parts of Sydney, getting groups of 50 and a 100 people along to games,” Hill said.

“Hopefully by the time something like the Asian Cup comes around it’s sort of second nature and not as confronting.”

President of the Australian-Iranian Society of Victoria, Mehdi Soodi, is one of the first Asian Cup community ambassadors.

A long-time indoor football enthusiast, Soodi is a key figure in the LOC strategy, with links to the state’s 10,000-strong Iranian community. 

He has set up a Facebook page to post tournament updates and is keen to use various language media to promote the message. 

A passionate supporter of the game since receiving his first football on his fifth birthday, the engineer and father of three arrived in Australia 11 years ago.

Speaking to au.fourfourtwo.com from his work site at the Pilbara mines, Soodi said football was a powerful tool in helping people settle in a new country.

“When people migrate one of the first things they want to do is to find people of their own background,” he said.

“One of the things we offer is putting them in touch with players. They go and sign up for teams, practice and play with them, make friends, get advice on how to settle in Australia.

“It’s a great, and healthy, way of getting in touch with the community, especially for younger people.”

It’s that enduring link to the game Australian organisers hope will ensure no repeat of the near empty stadia afflicting many matches in Qatar 2011. 

Multicultural festivals are being targeted and earlier this year the LOC and Western Sydney Wanderers co-hosted a stand at an Indian festival.

“We’re doing a lot of combined activities so that it promotes the A-League but also promotes the Asian Cup,” Hill said.

“There’s incredible enthusiasm because football, for most of these communities, is number one, their national sport, and it’s something that they’re passionate about. 

“The fact that the Asian Cup is coming to Australia and they can support both their country of heritage but also the Socceroos is really fantastic.”

Soodi said multicultural communities had no trouble barracking for two teams as was evident during the recent World Cup qualifiers.

“The Iranian community follows the Australian football team as well because we call this home,” he said. “We are lucky to have two teams to follow.

“We were all happy for Australia to make it to the World Cup – we were cheering – and we were lucky enough to be cheering two hours later for Iran. The Asian Cup is giving us the opportunity to do the same.”

Meanwhile the LOC is working through a short list of team training sites for the tournament with an announcement likely in September.

 “We’re going through the commercial terms, seeing (the sites) meet requirements and the ones that don’t, how much we’ll need to spend to bring them up to speed,” Hill said.