Expected to attract more than 45,000 international visitors and reach a potential audience of 2.5 billion this is the opportunity for FFA to flex its event-hosting muscle.

Australia, Japan, Korean Republic and DPR Korea have already qualified and will be joined by the winner of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup. Next month 20 other teams will head into the final qualifying phase in a bid to fill the 11 remaining spots.

The man pulling the strings is former Cricket Australia general manager, Michael Brown.

Just over a year ago Brown was appointed the Cup’s Local Organising Committee CEO, describing it as the most “exciting and challenging role” of his career.

As the clock ticks down to kick-off we asked the man in the hot seat how preparations are progressing - and whether Aussies are warming to Asia’s greatest show on earth. 

Just two years to go – does that put a spring in your step or a knot in your stomach?
A bit of both when you think about the things we have to do in the next two years. The excitement is you can actually see the end in sight now. But there’s always that bit of trepidation because Australia has a great history of delivering world class events – the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Rugby World Cup – and this is a really important event for football.

Last year AFL identity Eddie McGuire suggested the tournament may be a lemon. Or was that just sour grapes?
Eddie’s a passionate Victorian. He’s passionate about AFL. We’ve corresponded since that comment and he understands how big this is. When you’re talking in terms of two and half billion people, an event that represents half the world’s population, 47 countries of Asia - it’s a massive event, a great event for our country. My view is you only get one chance at this so you should be working with everybody, in every sport and every group to make it an incredible success.

Do you think those outside the football family have grasped the size or potential of the Cup?
What I’ve learnt in the last 12 months is that generating awareness is our biggest challenge. In Victoria you have such an incredible sport like AFL that just dominates the airwaves, and of course rugby league in NSW and AFL somewhat, and then of course you have cricket. But we know from looking at the attendances – they’re up over 20 per cent in the A-League, viewership is up over 20 per cent – so people are now watching the A-League and going to see it. And of course everybody follows the Socceroos. So what it actually involves is generating that awareness by letting people know (the Cup) is on. Australians are great sports supporters. The football family will come. I’m sure lots of other people will come to see Australia play as well.

Can you give us a glimpse of life for the Local Organising Committee?
We’ve got about 15 members in the LOC and 12 months ago there were three of us. We’ll be about 40 by mid-year. Then of course early next year all the venue teams will come on board, so by the time the event is on we’ll have about 100 full time staff and a couple of thousand volunteers. A lot of people from A-League clubs, FFA and from the football family will work as tour guides, volunteers and liaison officers.

How do fans sign up for these volunteer gigs?
The (Asian Cup) website is up and running now through the AFC site and by early this year you’ll see all the opportunities go there. There’ll be a place to apply for employment opportunities and we’ll be looking to start our volunteer workforce. There’ll be a whole lot of activities that gradually develop this year. And of course we’ll be developing a very strong social media and online presence leading up to the event. We’re currently in discussions with the AFC because we would like to host the website. That’s a process we have to work through. So hopefully over the next few months we’ll have something of our own that we can run across Australia because as you know social media and website traffic is a very important part of sport in our country.

What sort of feedback have you been getting from the AFC regarding the preparations?
They’ve been incredibly supportive. We had the preliminary draw (in Melbourne) in October and had the AFC president Zhang Jilong here and the chairman of the organising committee, Prince Abdullah from Malaysia. In the most recent AFC newsletter that was put out they both expressed real confidence in the success of this event. They’re looking for us to build on what was a very good event in Qatar but in a different set of circumstances. In Australia football is a very different sport and of course we play at multi-purpose venues so there are a lot of challenges and we do things differently in our code here.

Is this a chance for Australia to cement our position in Asia?
Absolutely. By the time this event starts the FFA will celebrate its 10th anniversary as a member of the AFC and anything we can do through this event to help strengthen those relationships – not just with the AFC but with the Asian countries in a business sense, a tourism sense and of course a football sense is a real positive for Australia. There is so much that can be achieved through football. The Asian Century white paper that was released late last year made it very clear the role sport has to play in linking Asia and we look forward in playing a part in that. Football is the biggest sport is Asia by far so it doesn’t matter. By 2020 they’re estimating there will be 380 million people playing football in Asia – they’re huge numbers. And this is Asia’s biggest sporting event by a long long way. To be invited to host this is a real feather in the cap of FFA. From a legacy perspective one of the things I want to see from this event is to make sure that we leave it as a launch pad for the FFA not only overseas but also at home. It’s as (FFA CEO) David Gallop says, football is coming out of its slumber and hopefully we can use the Asian Cup in a whole lot of different ways to make that happen.

You’ve touched on the A-League. How important is its success in the build up to 2015?
I think it’s really important. We’ve seen the success of the Western Sydney Wanderers which is just amazing. I was there on Sunday (January 6) for the game and I can’t think of a team anywhere in the world that’s driven the incredible interest and enthusiasm in its first year – that’s not even 12 months old! So the passion for the sport is there. Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC – the incredible momentum around people like (Emile) Heskey and (Alessandro) Del Piero – we would love that to continue because we want member federations, people from the football family, A-League club members and supporters to come along and enjoy the event as part of a football spectacular.

Has the current heatwave given the LOC any cause for concern about potential Cup conditions?
Most of these countries are pretty hot, so they’re pretty much used to it. And our games will be played in the evening so we’re hoping it will be a little cooler. We think the games will be around 6 or 6.30pm and a second match at 8 or 8.30pm. For the number of really really hot days you get a lot of lovely days as well.

Games will be played in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and ACT. When do you expect venues to be finalised?
Venues will be finalised in March. We’re now in the process of finalising Melbourne and Sydney venues and that’s just a process of working through with government and venue management and looking at the options. The AFC has a very important part to play in that because they have to give the ultimate approval. So we have a delegation from the AFC out here (this) week and they’ll continue that venue inspection and that venue analysis process.

Has that been a difficult process?
One of the principles for agreeing to the event is that this is a rotating draw which means the Socceroos will play in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The opening match we know is in Melbourne and that will be a Socceroos match. One of the interesting challenges is making sure (the teams) rotate equally and that’s very difficult mathematically. There are people a lot smarter than I who are doing a lot of work on it.

So what is the LOC doing as far as building the spectacle?
The focus is on delivering world class football – that’s what the event is about. So we’re making sure that the teams are prepared and that the teams have the right opportunities to prepare themselves. We’ll be having pre-tournament camps and looking to spread those across rural communities and cities away from the major centres. So there’ll be opportunities to host some of the teams. For each venue we’ve got to provide two training venues. We’ve got three at each but we’re just finalising (those). They need to be of a certain level – a certain level of lighting, they need to be fenced and have a media area and we’re currently working through all that. The training venues need to be within 30 minutes from the hotel and 30 minutes from the airport so there are plenty of options in each of the states.

Reaching out into the community is obviously a priority
We’ve started to engage with the communities of teams that will participate – so we’ve identified now who the community leaders are. We’re working with them to see how we get them involved. And of course we will be working with their communities to encourage them to come to games. We’ll be looking, in that last week in Sydney, to host a whole lot of events out and around Sydney Olympic park (ANZ Stadium) because obviously that’s where the final will be. And later this year an online football education program that focuses on Asia and provides information and data around the Asian Cup which we expect will raise awareness and also interest in the event.

How do go about generating interest in a match like Oman v Bahrain?
Like any sporting event there are some classic games. Australia v Japan is always a fantastic match. All the Australian games will be good sellers. One of the great challenges for us is in some of the games where the teams are not so well known to create an atmosphere. I’d rather be selling tickets for a much lesser amount and getting more people to stadiums rather than capitalise on a few who might come. It’s about getting those communities to get involved and make it a celebration of football. We’ve got over two million people of Asian extraction living in Australia – many of those on the east coast, so we’ll be looking at how we get them to come along and follow their football teams.

Will you be offering any creative ticketing to get people along to some of these lower profile match-ups?
We’re currently doing some ticketing analysis now of other sports and other events to make sure that we understand what the market needs and what it can do. The obvious strength for us is that sport has an incredible online presence in Australia to get out the ticket offers and make sure we (connect with) groups. I recently spoke to Sutherland Shire Football community and I talked to them about how to get their teams to come along to support matches and they’re incredibly enthusiastic.

A lot has been said about the crowded sporting market in January. How do you see it?
I’ve never seen a summer where it isn’t crowded. You look around Christmas you’ve got the Sydney to Hobart, you’ve got the Boxing Day test match, you’ve got big A-League matches, derbies etc. Then there’s the Australian Open. What we know in Australia is that people love to watch sport. That’s not going to change. What we’re producing is a world class event. I know there is the space for it. If you’re talking about fitting into a crowded marketplace the Western Sydney Wanderers did it brilliantly. If you create the event and if you market it well enough and communicate with those communities involved there’s plenty of space for everybody. If the football is good and the event’s challenging and enjoyable – people will come.

How has the business community embraced the opportunities presented by the Cup?
They’re very excited. We’re working with Austrade to put together a programme similar to what they ran at the Olympics. Each of the states is very keen to drive business forums and exhibitions in and around the event. A lot of politicians have toured through Asia and we’ve made arrangements for some governments to meet football people. I think you’ll see the business community have a very strong role to play.

The Socceroos were runners up to Japan in 2011 and will be looking to go one better in 2015. But have you contemplated a final minus the Aussies?
We try not to think about that (laughs). We can’t influence how the team performs. We will have to cross that barrier (if it happens). Obviously you want Australia to make the final but if they’re not there we’ll have engaged with so many communities we’ll get a lot of people along.