According to the Melbourne-based Age newspaper, Australia's successful run at the World Cup will boost chances of a yearly three-nation tournament with Japan and South Korea, which could then be expanded to include North Korea and China.
This way the region's best teams would be able to sharpen their skills against each other. Competition is the key to improvement and thus Asian soccer will benefit from the inclusion of Australia.
In the next World Cup Diary on Saturday, we follow the money to find out why there's so much domestic interest in the World Cup when it's a "football desert" the rest of the time. Clue: It's not the beautiful game but the odds of winning a wager.
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