Tuesday 7th February 2006

ROAR ACCEPT KOREAN INVITATION

QUEENSLAND Roar FC have accepted an invitation to participate in a prestigious international football tournament in Korea, starting later this month.

The Tongyeong Cup, which is in its third year of operation, is a four-team tournament held in Tongyeong City, one week before the start of Korea’s premier football competition, the K-League. Tongyeong City is situated approximately five hours drive from the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Featuring in the tournament this year are K-League teams Incheon United FC, Daegu FC, Chinese side Beijing Hyundai and Queensland Roar FC.

Roar will take an 18-man squad to Korea and leave Brisbane on February 21st, returning on February 28th. South Korea, under the guidance of current Socceroo coach, Guus Hiddink, both co-hosted and made the semi-finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup and have a dynamic, robust football culture.

Roar’s match schedule is as follows:

Feb 23rd: v Incheon Utd FC - 4.00pm kick off (local time) – Live on Korean TV (station MBC)

Feb 25th: v Beijing Hyundai – 11.30am kick off (local time)

Feb 27th: v Daegu FC – 2.00pm kick off (local time) - Live on Korean TV (station FBS)

Queensland Roar FC CEO, Lawrence Oudendyk, says the tournament is a tremendous opportunity for the club to establish a beneficial relationship with both Korean football clubs and businesses.

“We think it’s important for football in Australia to develop strong links with Asia. Because we have a Korean Assistant Coach, Tae-Yong Shin, and a Korean player, Hyuk-Su Seo, who has been a stand-out performer this season, the links are already there with Korea,” he said.

“We would like to build on those links. Sydney FC did terrifically well in Japan recently and we hope to make similar in-roads in Korea. We will be actively pursuing commercial opportunities whilst in Korea and Tae-Yong (Shin) will be of great assistance to us in that respect by being able to introduce us to various companies and sports management agencies,” Oudendyk added.

The Roar Chief Executive stressed the significance of meeting face to face with Korean officials and business people with both he and Chairman John Ribot making the Asian trip.

“It is vitally important that we meet people in person and we be looking to develop relationships with clubs over there and hopefully inviting them to Australia. This is great opportunity for us to go to a country with a strong and continually developing football culture.”

it can only be a good thing for qld roar to take part in it.

Big opportunity, two games live on tv, time for a major sponser maybe?