Thousands of Australians book Asian Cup on line

Football Federation Australia advises that the Socceroos' first appearance at the finals of the AFC Asian Cup 2007 in the group stage in Bangkok, Thailand, "is set to attract a huge number of supporters with fans snapping up thousands of tickets via the internet" as "early indications from the Asian Football Confederation are that up to 5,000 tickets have been purchased from Australia across their three pool matches in Bangkok." Australian fans travelled in their thousands to Germany to support the team at the FIFA World Cup last year and the numbers could be just as impressive in Thailand.

For Australians who can’t get to the matches, Fox Sports has announced it will be showing every match of the region’s showpiece football event on Pay-TV throughout Australia. Of the 32 matches, 28 will be broadcast live with the other four on immediate replay due to conflicting kick off times on the last two days of the group stage. On those two nights, viewers can watch four straight Asian Cup matches in a football marathon.

Fox Sports commentators Simon Hill, Robbie Slater, Brenton Speed, Paul Trimboli and Ange Postecoglou will also be heard all over the world with Fox Sports supplying English-speaking commentary to an expected worldwide audience of 200 million people, through ESPN Star Asia, Euro Sport and LBC.