Fans in Melbourne have the chance to experience the excitement of the biggest football tournament ever to be staged in Australia eight hours before Friday’s kick-off between the Socceroos and Kuwait at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium with an interactive Football Fan Park opening at City Square.
The Socceroos’ clash with Kuwait (at 8pm; opening ceremony 7.30pm) will mark the start of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, which will see the top 16 football nations in Asia battle it out in 32 games, across 23 days in five cities.
The dome-shaped football park in Melbourne city offers fans the chance to engage with the AFC Asian Cup through a range of informative, entertaining and competitive activities. The football fan parks will also open in Newcastle tomorrow (Friday) as well as Sydney and Brisbane on Saturday.
Fans can have their photos taken interactively with their favourite national team, have their faces digitally painted in their team’s colours, score the winning goal in the virtual penalty shootout and produce their best goal celebrations in the Score and Roar studio.
The fan parks will be open from 12pm daily at the following locations:
Melbourne Jan 9-22
City Square, 67 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Newcastle Jan 9-30
Honeysuckle, 28 Honeysuckle Drive, Newcastle
Sydney Jan 10-24
Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, Sydney
Jan 27-31
Centenary Square, 30 Darcy St, Parramatta
Brisbane Jan 10-22
Cultural Forecourt, South Bank, Melbourne St, South Brisbane
In keeping with the cutting-edge technology of the parks, interactive tablets will be on hand for fans to secure their tickets to all AFC Asian Cup matches from January 9-31, 2015. Sydney company, The Creative Shop, will deliver the fan park services using technology they designed and developed.
The AFC Asian Cup is Asia’s biggest football competition and was established in 1956.
The 16 nations to qualify for AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 are Australia as hosts, defending champions Japan, Korea Republic and 2012 AFC Challenge Cup winners DPR Korea, along with Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Palestine.
The 16 finalists will take part in a 23-day festival of football in five cities which the Socceroos will kick off against Kuwait on January 9, 2015, in Melbourne, with the final set for Sydney’s Stadium Australia on January 31, 2015.
The tournament is being financially supported by the Australian Government and the NSW, Victorian, Queensland and ACT Governments.
Fox Sports will broadcast all 32 matches of AFC Asian Cup live in HD throughout Australia. ABC is the official AFC Asian Cup free-to-air broadcaster.
Tickets for AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 are on sale now.
Join us on our journey throughout the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in January by downloading the Official Socceroos app! Download the app through the App Store or Google Play store, or CLICK HERE